The\u00a0rising cost of eggs\u00a0in the U.S. is denting household budgets. Americans in recent years have increased the amount of eggs they consume while reducing their intake of beef and venison, according to\u00a0data\u00a0from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
\nEgg consumption has grown in part because more families are eating them as their main protein substitute, Los Angeles Times reporter Sonja Sharp\u00a0told\u00a0CBS News. “Each of us eats about as many eggs as one hen can lay a year,” she said.
\nAs demand for eggs has risen, production in the U.S. has slumped because of the ongoing\u00a0bird, or “avian,” flu epidemic. Nearly 58 million birds have been infected with avian flu as of January 6, the USDA\u00a0said, making it the deadliest outbreak in U.S. history. Infected birds must be slaughtered, causing egg supplies to fall and prices to surge.
\nIn California, for example,\u00a0data\u00a0shows the average price for a dozen eggs reached $7.37 last week, compared with $2.35 a year ago. The national average egg price per dozen wholesale is now $3.30, the USDA\u00a0said\u00a0last week. The average price for a dozen eggs by U.S. city grew to a record $3.58 in November, according to the most recent\u00a0data\u00a0available from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
\nIn New York, grocery store owner Jose Filipe said that soaring egg costs have caused many customers to change their spending habits.
\n“I’ve seen customers gravitate from buying organic eggs now to more conventional eggs, and specifically now, the half dozen. Prices have quadrupled in about six or seven months,” he\u00a0recently told CBS2’s Jenna DeAngelis.
\nBird flu is carried by free-flying waterfowl, such as ducks, geese and shorebirds, and infects chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, domestic ducks, geese and guinea fowl. In another major recent epidemic of the disease, it killed more than 50 million chickens and turkeys in 2014 and 2015, while causing economic losses of $3.3 billion, the USDA estimates. The agency is now researching a potential vaccine against the bird flu.<\/p>\n