I'm sure y'all heard about the avian flu issue here in the U.S. The last time I checked, 4 states had declared it a crisis. I had heard that there could be a shortage of turkeys for Thanksgiving, but a friend who lives in the area said supplies are good, so that shouldn't be an issue. I just saw this story, about an egg shortage, and HEB, which is a Texas based grocer, is now limiting shoppers to 3 cartons of eggs apiece. Here's the link: http://www.khou.com/story/money/bus...f-eggs-per-customer-due-to-shortage/28461337/
Wow, the price of eggs has gone up a lot. I just got back from Walmart, and I paid $4.24 for 18 eggs. The prices have been up for a while, I guess because of the Avian Flu situation, but this is a lot more than I paid last month.
A limit of 3 dozen ...for people who only buy 1 dozen? When the limit is 3 eggs, then it will be a crisis!
I haven't actually heard about the type of Flu. I did hear that there could be a shortage of eggs though, but didn't know why. As for limiting the amount of eggs a person buys, I usually only buy at the most a few dozen per month unless there is a special reason for more. Such as the Easter holiday but that has passed by now, so I won't have any issue unless they start to raise egg price outragiously, and I wouldn't be surprised if this started to happen as well.
I eat at least 1 egg a day, and use more in the cat food I make, as well as recipes, so I go through 5-6 dozen a month. I do most of my shopping once a month, which was today. The price has gone up so much though, that I'll have to buy more later in the month, assuming they're available.
I only purchase eggs to bake so the limitation of 3 dozen will not really cause me any trouble. I do see it as as problem for many other people and businesses. What are the health concerns we should be concerned with?
There seems to be differing opinions as to whether humans can catch the avian flu from eating the chicken or the eggs from chickens who have the flu. They have killed millions of chickens and turkeys. What I read was that there will definitely be a shortage of turkeys because it takes at least three months to grow a turkey large enough to use for thanksgiving, and it will be another three months before they can re-use the facilities where they had to kill the sick turkeys. So, that makes six months before we have large turkeys again. If this is correct, there might be turkeys for Christmas; but not likely very many by Thanksgiving, and the ones they do have will probably not be cheap. If you have a small farmer where you can buy a turkey from, then you would probably be okay. It is apparently the poultry that are raised commercially that are getting sick, and families that raise their own birds are doing fine. Even some of the fast food places are cutting down on their breakfast eggs. Whataburger has shortened their breakfast hours in order to limit the eggs they need to make their breakfast menu. So far, we have not had much of a price increase here; but I think that most of our eggs and chickens are from Alabama, and the avian flu has not affected any poultry here that i have read about.
I haven't noticed much of an increase here and haven't heard of any limits. We eat a lot of eggs but usually only buy 2 dozen at a time. I'm sure this is going to affect the price of chicken as well as eggs. Beef has been sky high for a long time. We'll just have to eat more pork and fish.
There are various types of bird flu, most of which are harmless to humans. We have had one or two outbreaks in recent years in the UK, but no cases of human infection. We've certainly not had any restrictions on egg purchases, though.
I won't swear that this is what's going on with the bird flu but I do know that our government and our media encourages panic, and takes advantage of every opportunity to spread it around. Prices go up and people are prompted to look to the government to save them from yet another peril.
@Yvonne Smith I spoke to a friend in Wisconsin (one of the crisis states), who said they had a report on the Avian Flu up there, and said there is a glut of turkeys in deep freezes, so this situation shouldn't affect our Thanksgiving turkey prices, but as @Ken Anderson said, no doubt, the prices will go up, because why let reality interfere with profits? A friend was running to Kroger (I believe they locally source at least their eggs, if not some of their other chicken products), and I had him pick me up some eggs. He said they had tons of eggs. Guess what? HEB can limit their customers, but Kroger's going to be supplying those customers with their eggs, and may end up stealing some customers because of it. There is no shortage of eggs or chickens in Texas, and that's what upsets me, because we shouldn't have to worry about running out, or being rationed unless and until there is a crisis here. I saw the story about Whataburger limiting their breakfast menu due to the shortage, too. I know there are Whataburgers outside of Texas, so I don't know if they're being affected by the shortage for that reason, but it seems there are plenty in Alabama and in Texas, and most likely in other states, so they should be able to obtain them from those states without shortages, rather than cutting back their menu. @Ken Anderson I totally agree with both of your points, and there's no need for any of us outside of the immediately affected areas to be dealing with this situation. I'm sure there are plenty of eggs in the unaffected states that they should be able to make up for any scarcity within the affected states, which could boost those businesses' sales temporarily.
Where the real damage will be done is in the food groups where eggs are used as an ingredient, so overall we will see a spike in food prices. I am glad that I have reverted to a more basic diet, but we do eat a good amount of eggs here. Even though we are not one of the states that has been effected I did read in the paper that they will not be allowing the fowl exhibit at the state fair this year. I wonder about the avian flu though, I recall in the spring there was a story in the news about huge numbers of ducks found dead by the shores, they said it was from the severe winter but I do not know for certain that is the case, we have had many severe winters and I don't recall so many dead water fowl. Even the Canadian geese are not as robust in population as they usually are. To me it is sad, I like the birds.
One of the things that old-time farmers did was give their chickens just a dab of iodine in the drinking water if one got sick, and the iodine will kill any kind of bacteria, yeast infection, virus, or even a parasite; so not many of the small farms who still use this remedy are having any problems with their poultry. The commerically raised poultry get drugs, hormones, and antibiotics all of the time; so even their immune system has no way to build itself up like a free-range chicken does. I am sure we will see the prices go up on any food that uses eggs as an ingredient; which includes a lot of foods. We are not having a shortage here iether; but if they send our eggs to the places that do have a shortage, then our eggs may be rationed, too.
Here's a site that has information on the situation. A friend picked me up some eggs yesterday, and said that our local Kroger had plenty. Hopefully that won't change. Many people on tight budgets can't afford additional increases in food costs, so I hope they get this situation under control, before it becomes even more widespread than it already is. http://www.thepoultrysite.com/bird-flu/bird-flu-news.php?country=us