[tppiotrowski]

Why does this mostly affect the US? I've been abroad most of the year and eggs don't seem overly expensive.

[llamaimperative]

It's spreading abroad, but the US seems to be ground zero. The US's agricultural methods also make it extremely vulnerable to infectious disease (if one breaks through the continuous deluge of antibiotics we pump into our animals).

[toomuchtodo]

The below links are not all inclusive, but each touch on your inquiry in various capacities (as the problem is complex and multifaceted). Georgia halted all poultry sales due to infection detections, for example.

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/h5n1-much-more-than-you-wan...

https://agr.georgia.gov/pr/highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza...

https://www.wusf.org/health-news-florida/2025-02-02/deadly-h...

https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/01/21/134m-poultry-and-c...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-13447-z

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0609227103

[gramie]

To cite a close-to-home example, chicken farms in Canada typically have about 25,000 chickens, whereas ones in the U.S. often have millions. So an infection that requires the entire flock to be slaughtered has a much bigger effect on the supply of eggs south of the border.

[mrweasel]

That makes a lot of sense, because I lookup up how we handle it in Denmark and it's the same, destroy the entire flock if a farm is infected. It's just it's not millions, it's 6000, 40.000, 20.000 chickens per farm, not a million.

Weird that the size of the farms aren't being regulated if you know from other countries that it makes containment easier.

[simple10]

My guess is how lax the US is with factory farm animal welfare. When an epidemic breaks out, it hits these factory farms much harder and the USDA (government food agency) cracks down and indirectly drives up prices.

[bushbaba]

Even if it’s not lax. It will spread. There is economy of scale benefits by having larger farms.

[brendoelfrendo]

Eggs are usually produced and sold regionally. The current bird flu epidemic impacting US chicken farms will be less impactful elsewhere. I believe there were reported cases of bird flu in Europe at the end of last year, but I don't think they spread to the widespread devastation we're seeing in the US.

[Svip]

The bird flu is mostly contained to North America. Birds fly north/south, not east/west, so so far there has been no reports of it moving across either ocean. This is why Europeans and Asians are terrified of bird flu transmitting between humans, because then an infected human could get on a plane and spread it there. So far, however, that threat remains unrealised.

[llamaimperative]

Didn't the UK just cull millions of birds for H5N1?

[giantg2]

Albatross and other birds disagree. And don't forget the birds using ships to migrate.

[lm2s]

Is this a serious comment? Bird flu is happening right now in EU.

[chneu]

nonsense comment. this bird flu is global and has been decimating a ton of wild animals, not just birds. It's been going on for well over a year.

[lm2s]

It’s not, bird flu has also been detected 1-2 days ago in Portugal near where I live.