The supply of eggs in the U.S. has been limited due to the avian influenza outbreak in Midwestern United States, according to Reuters. Companies who use the food item are suffering from a continuing price increase and shortage and are even considering importing products abroad.
This tightening of supply was caused by a sudden outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza across 14 states: Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Arkansas, Oregon, California, Washington and Idaho.
About 40 million birds have been found dead and scientists have been investigating the possible sources of the poultry disease.
This wide loss of poultry source has caused a serious economic problem as well. Rick Brown, senior vice president of commodity market analysis firm Urner Barry, says the cost of a dozen eggs soared from US$1.19 in April, to more than US$2.03 this week.
Goldman Sachs analysts foresee that American consumers will spend an additional "$7.5 billion to $8 billion" just because of this shortage.
For some companies that will order abroad, egg suppliers from European countries like France, and the Netherlands are already preparing for a huge wave of demand.
To prevent the rampant spread of this easily-contaminated virus, agriculturists and scientists should control the animals from infecting other farms.
"If you have got migratory birds and they stop at different locations on open water, it is pretty easy to understand," said Dr. Jack Shere, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service associate deputy administrator tells NBC News. "This virus can live in the water for up to 130 days."
Other enterprises like GlaxoSmithKline Plc, has reinforced their standards on flu vaccine production in Canada and Germany.
The World Health Organization describes Bird Flu as an infectious viral disease of birds. It may not directly contaminate humans, but influenza viruses like A(H5N1) and A(H7N9) have seriously infected people.
