{"id":19612,"date":"2023-02-22T12:07:30","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T20:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=19612"},"modified":"2023-05-04T14:18:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T22:18:54","slug":"bird-flu-outbreak-enters-its-second-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/bird-flu-outbreak-enters-its-second-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu outbreak enters its second year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Written by: <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mirella Barrera-Betancourt<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It has been a year since the outbreak of the avian influenza, which rocked egg inventories and raised wholesale egg prices. In January 2023, Oregonians saw the prices of eggs spike higher in percentage than any other food item, such as chicken or turkey.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The avian flu, also known as the bird flu, had a devastating effect on flocks of hens across the country, forcing farms to kill more than 43 million hens by the end of December 2022 to limit the spread of the disease and costing the government roughly $660 million. The outbreak hit in two separate waves, from February to June and from September to December.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The avian flu is a highly contagious virus, spread easily through wild bird droppings and nasal discharges, making it incredibly difficult for farmers to contain the spread of the disease.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though this specific virus does not significantly pose a threat to human health, as a reminder, poultry should be cooked to 165\u2109 to ensure any present viruses are eliminated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The outbreak, combined with soaring inflation, fuel and labor costs are grounds for havoc from consumers. Amid a national supply shortage, grocery stores in and around Oregon are continuing to face struggles with meeting the market demand for eggs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, the consumer price of eggs rose 8.5% to an average price of $4.82 per dozen this past January.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The limited supply of eggs is prevalent for many individuals, including college students.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Western, Valsetz Dining Hall \u2014 students\u2019 main source for easy, on-campus dining \u2014 had to resort to charging diners for the difference in supply and demand. At their registers, a sign has been put on display informing diners of the raised prices for meals containing eggs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Currently, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately for consumers, there is no guarantee that egg prices will go back to being one of the cheaper, more nutritious food options.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, new flocks of hens have begun repopulating farms, which may indicate a significant advancement toward replenishing the United State\u2019s egg supply.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"Danielle Gauntz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}