Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been present in the U.S. egg industry since February 2022 and has caused the depopulation of approximately 73.4 million layers over 57 flocks total, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
The 31-month-long outbreak, and counting, has caused the layer supply in the U.S. to fluctuate significantly and egg prices to see historical highs in conventional and specialty options.
2022 by far the worst for the layer industry
Of the three years, HPAI had the largest impact on layer producers in 2022.
Over 43.4 million hens were depopulated in 2022, with March being the month with the most bird losses at 16.91 million over eight flocks. Following March 2022 were April at 10.7 million layers over 10 flocks, September at 4.9 million layers over two flocks and December at 3.9 million layers over four flocks.
Courtesy Denise O'Keefe
Even though there are approximately four months left in 2024, this year has seen more layer hen depopulations than has 2023.
In 2024, almost 17.2 million layers have been depopulated due to HPAI outbreaks. Only three months have been impacted this year including, April at 8.4 million layers over four flocks, May at 5.7 million layers over two flocks and July at 3.1 million layers over two flocks.
In 2023, the U.S. layer industry did not see an HPAI outbreak in one of its flocks until November, which involved 5.1 million birds over five flocks. In December, almost 7.8 million layers were depopulated over 11 flocks.
U.S. free of HPAI since mid-July 2024
The U.S. poultry industry has not seen a commercial case of HPAI in approximately six weeks. The last case confirmed by USDA APHIS occurred on July 19, 2024, in a flock of 300,800 commercial table egg pullets in Weld County, Colorado.
HPAI cases on July 24 and August 5 were confirmed this year in non-commercial flocks in Florida, but will not have an impact on international trade, according to World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) standards.
View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.
To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States, Mexico and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
