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Chicken eggs are disposed of at a quarantined farm in Israel's northern Moshav (village) of Margaliot on January 3, 2022. (credit:
Getty | JALAA MAREY / AFP)
)
The ongoing bird flu outbreak in the US is now the longest and deadliest on record. More than
57 million birds
have been killed by the virus or culled since a year ago, and the deadly disruption has helped propel skyrocketing egg prices and a spike in egg smuggling.
Since highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) was first detected in US birds in January 2022, the price of a carton of a dozen eggs has shot up from an average of about $1.79 in December 2021 to $4.25 in December 2022, a 137 percent increase, according to
data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
. Although inflation and supply chain issues partly explain the rise, eggs saw the largest percentage increase of any specific food, according to
the consumer price index
.
And the steep pricing is leading some at the US-Mexico border to try to smuggle in illegal cartons, which is prohibited. A US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told NPR this week that people in El Paso, Texas, are buying eggs in Juárez, Mexico, because they are "
significantly less expensive
." Meanwhile, a customs official in San Diego tweeted a reminder amid a rise in egg interceptions that failure to declare such agriculture items at a port of entry can result
in penalties up to $10,000
.