North Carolina among states losing millions of birds to flu in 2025

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – Commercial egg farmers in North Carolina were among those in several states to lose millions of birds to the avian influenza so far this year, federal officials reported last week.

According to an egg market report published on Feb. 21 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA: Egg farmers in North Carolina alone lost 3.3 million birds to the bird flu in January. North Carolina is among nine states with bird flu outbreaks confirmed in January and February 2025 by the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the report said.

States with confirmed outbreaks this year include: Arizona, California, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington state. Together, egg farmers in the states had to depopulate — or kill — 26.8 million birds so far this year, the USDA reported on Feb. 21.

Ohio had experienced the worst losses so far in 2025, losing 7.8 million birds in January and another 2.1 million birds in February. Indiana farmers also experienced significant losses, losing 3 million birds in January and 3.5 million birds in February due to the bird flu.

Data was not available for both months for all nine states listed in the report, with some showing January numbers only, and others showing February numbers only. You can read the USDA’s entire report from Feb. 21 down below.

The loss of nearly 30 million birds so far in 2025 comes after egg farmers across the U.S. had to eradicate 13.2 million birds in December 2024 due to the bird flu, officials said.

The bird flu, known as the highly pathogenic avian flu, has had a significant impact on commercial bird flocks across the country in recent months.

If one bird in a flock gets sick, farmers are required to eradicate the entire flock to ensure the virus doesn’t spread. The latest bird flu surge is leading to the eradication of millions of birds, causing egg supply to drop and prices to soar in the U.S.

The average price of a dozen eggs nationwide reached $4.15 in December 2024. The record average price was $4.82 per dozen, which was recorded in 2023.

The USDA expects egg prices to rise another 20% in 2025.

While bird flu outbreaks have been a problem for farmers for the past few years, a North Carolina egg farmer told WBTV that current efforts will need to ramp up to really curb virus spread.

“It’s gonna take a joint effort from all of animal agriculture, from USDA, from our administration, from Congress, to really just pour resources into this,” Alex Simpson, president of Simpson’s Eggs, told WBTV in January. “We can’t just keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

—> More: North Carolina egg farmer urges bird flu be taken seriously: ‘This is the nation’s food supply’

Full February USDA report

Read the full USDA report on egg markets from Feb. 21, 2025, below.

—> Denny’s joins the list to add egg surcharge amid bird flu shortage

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