CARSON CITY — A bill in the Nevada Legislature could address egg shortages and rising egg costs by allowing the state to temporarily suspend a law requiring the sale of cage-free eggs.

An avian flu outbreak that began in 2022 has wreaked havoc on the national egg supply chain, leading to the killing more than 156 million birds and causing egg prices to rise 36.8 percent from December 2023 to December 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Egg prices are predicted to rise another 20.3 percent this year, the USDA said in a January food price outlook report.

Nevada has another layer that is contributing to the rising costs. Existing law, passed in 2021, only allows for the sale of cage-free eggs and egg products.

Assembly Bill 171, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager and Assemblymember Howard Watts, both D-Las Vegas, would authorize the state’s quarantine officer to order the temporary suspension cage-free egg requirements during “any ongoing event that negatively impacts the national supply chain for egg products or shell eggs,” according to the bill as introduced. Events could include a foreign animal disease outbreak or a federally declared disease emergency or national disaster.

The bill would only allow a 120-day, or roughly four months, suspension at a time. It also requires no more than two temporary suspensions in a calendar year and requires the state quarantine officer to give no less than 14 days’ notice of the suspension’s ending.

AB 171’s first hearing will be in the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources at 4 p.m. Monday.

The issue is obvious directly across the street from the Legislative Building. Comma Coffee, a cafe on Carson Street, has a sign on its door about its egg-based dishes.

“Due to the extraordinary increase in eggs again, we will be adding $1.00 to every egg dish at the register,” the sign reads. “Hopefully this is a temporary situation, but I can no longer absorb the increases.”

In Las Vegas, bulk shopping stores like Costco are often sold out of eggs, the Review-Journal reported in January. Other grocery stores had two-carton limits per shopper.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.