Avian influenza: How to protect the eggs we have left

Having over 15 years of experience in the egg industry, I’ve analyzed Avian Influenza trends for years. What are concerns about Avian Influenza today? What are potential solutions to curbing the losses? The answers may surprise you.

Avian Influenza: The 2015 outbreak versus today

Over 90 billion table eggs were produced in the U.S. in 2022 by roughly 308 million laying hens. This may seem like an extraordinary amount of eggs and hens, but in fact, both numbers are marked decreases from 2021. The egg industry would prefer to have one laying hen per person in the U.S., which would total over 330 million egg layers.

It’s important to note that this outbreak of Avian Influenza is not the first in the U.S. The 2015 outbreak was noted as the largest poultry health disaster in U.S. history at the time, with 43 million egg-laying chickens lost as a result of the epidemic.

Luckily, with population control and careful monitoring, the 2015 outbreak ceased to a halt. To many outsiders, it just… went away.

That’s not the case with the 2022 avian influenza outbreak, which is still running strong. Over 50 million poultry birds have been lost since the outbreak was first noted in February, 2022. This outbreak is already worse than the 2015 outbreak, and it’s here to last. There are currently hundreds of thousands of affected birds, and many more are to be culled to control the disease's spread.

Industry leaders and consumers will be affected

While the loss of millions of birds is an incredibly concerning statistic, consumers on the other side of the table are more likely to notice changes in egg prices and availability. While the prices of eggs may be stable so far, they’re likely to increase once the holiday baking season arrives around November and December. This is especially true if the current percentage of eggs that make it from the farm to the store stays the same.

In short, unless the supply of eggs is increased, consumers will experience higher prices and lower availability in retail markets.

Potential solutions to Avian Influenza-related egg loss

The truth is that there is no one perfect solution to fighting Avian Influenza and its associated egg loss. These issues are also a matter of agreeing on a solution, which is arguably the more difficult part. 

This doesn’t make preventing the spread of Avian Influenza or solving supply chain issues an impossible task; just a tricky one.

Vaccinating chickens for Avian Influenza

One potential solution is to vaccinate birds against Avian Influenza. While an Avian Influenza vaccine should be considered alongside all other solutions, it’s simply not feasible. 

Vaccinating the hundreds of millions of commercial-purpose chickens alone would be incredibly expensive and time consuming, with the potential to cost millions of taxpayer dollars and take months.

Additionally, Avian Influenza is a rapidly changing virus. Vaccinations become quickly outdated or less effective as the disease evolves quickly.

Another worry is that the U.S. poultry export trade is a booming industry valued at roughly $77 billion, and many trade partners won’t accept chickens that have been vaccinated. By vaccinating flocks, the U.S. risks losing thousands of jobs and billions of dollars from decreased exports.

Enhancing sanitation and reporting protocols

The current primary solution is enhanced reporting and sanitation protocols. By reporting cases of Avian Influenza to the proper authorities quickly and accurately, farms can limit the spread of the disease.

Some farms have also increased sanitation and monitoring policies to curb the spread. But again, this is another time-intensive and costly solution to a problem that isn’t likely to go away anytime soon.

Protecting the supply we have: where Tosca steps in

In my opinion, there is a better solution emerging in our industry: Protecting the eggs we already have. 

In the process of getting eggs from chickens on farms to crates in stores, the odds that an egg will break are as high as 6%. After all, there’s a reason why you check that your dozen is unbroken when shopping. Between transporting the eggs in large vehicles to stacking egg cartons one by one in-store, egg breakage contributes to the loss of eggs that are already healthy and laid.

If increasing the number of eggs laid isn’t an option, we should consider measures that improve other areas of the egg supply chain. This is where Tosca’s Reusable Plastic Crates (RPCs) come in.

Tosca has been preventing damage to meat, produce, and eggs for years. By using stronger and more reliable transit packaging, more eggs can arrive to customers. It’s a perfectly viable, less expensive, and easier-to-induce solution to egg loss.

Saving just 1% of eggs with Tosca’s RPCs would save 90 million eggs a year, or 3 million crates (containing 30 dozen eggs each). That’s 3,700 truckloads per year saved. But Tosca crates save reduce egg shrink by 50%. That’s an incredible impact: X million eggs saved each year. 

Additionally, RPCs save time in-store. Retail employees can simply slide the crates into the display cooler rather than unpacking each carton individually. This allows for FIFO (first-in, first-out) methods of food storage to be met while also eliminating stacking. An independent study found that egg crates offer a 53% decrease in labor compared to corrugated. You can read the study here > 

The egg industry will recover

The newest Avian Influenza outbreak will force change in the industry and cause consumers to grapple with higher prices, but it isn’t the end. More and more solutions are arising to protect our flocks and eggs together. Tosca is proud to be a part of this emerging forefront.