A bird flu outbreak is ravaging California’s massive poultry industry, forcing businesses to kill more than one million chickens and causing egg prices to soar.
Mike Weber, who owns Sunrise Farms in Sonoma County, learned last month that his chickens had become infected with the highly-contagious virus. Per government rules, he had to slaughter his entire flock of 550,000 egg-laying hens.
“It’s a trauma. We’re all going through grief as a result of it,” Weber told the Associated Press inside an empty hen house. “Petaluma is known as the Egg Basket of the World. It’s devastating to see that egg basket go up in flames.”
The avian flu is wreaking havoc in California a year after the disease caused egg prices to skyrocket to record highs nationwide due to a shortage following an outbreak in the Midwest.
Officials have declared a state of emergency in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, after nearly a dozen commercial farms have killed more than a million birds to curb the outbreak in the last two months, devastating farmers, workers and their customers.
Merced County in Central California also has been hit hard, with outbreaks reported recently at several large commercial egg-producing farms.
Bird flu is spread by ducks, geese and other migratory birds. While the waterfowl can carry the virus without getting sick, they easily spread the disease to poultry birds through their droppings and nasal discharges, according to experts.
State Veterinarian Annette Jones urged farmers to keep their flocks indoors until June — including organic chickens that are required to have outdoor access.
“We still have migration going for another couple of months. So we’ve got to be as vigilant as possible to protect our birds,” said Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation.
The outbreak caused egg prices in the Bay Area to spike over the holidays before eggs could be imported from other parts of the country.
This latest outbreak of the virus began in early 2022 and has prompted officials to slaughter nearly 82 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens, in 47 U.S. states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It has spread to every habited continent except for Australia, experts said.
The price of a dozen eggs more than doubled to $4.82 at its peak in January 2023. It returned to normal as farmer’s re-stocked their flocks. Turkey and chicken prices also increased.
The outbreak has affected more than 7 million chickens in about 40 commercial flocks and 24 backyard flocks in California, according to the USDA. Most occurred over the past two months on the state’s North Coast and Central Valley regions.
Ettamarie Peterson maintains 50 chickens that produce eggs she sells from her backyard barn for 50 cents each.
“I’m very concerned because this avian flu is transmitted by wild birds, and there’s no way I can stop the wild birds from coming through and leaving the disease behind,” Peterson said.
Despite putting in place strict biosecurity measures to protect his chickens, Weber’s flock at Sunrise Farms became infected before Christmas.
“The virus got to the birds so bad and so quickly you walked in and the birds were just dead,” Weber said. “Heartbreaking doesn’t describe how you feel when you walk in and perfectly healthy young birds have been just laid out.”
He said he and his employees have spent the last month cleaning and disinfecting the hen houses.
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