U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins joins Varney & Co. to discuss the Trump administration’s recalibration of the food system and a federal judge blocking the government from ending SNAP benefits.
Egg prices have fallen rapidly over the past year as the market normalizes following a significant bird flu outbreak that began in 2022, although the threat of a resurgence of the virus could lead to volatility later this year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported this on Wednesday consumer price index (CPI) for February, which showed egg prices fell 3.8% this month and are down 42.1% from a year ago. In contrast, headline CPI inflation was 2.4% higher than a year ago.
“Because of this, we’ve had times where the laying flock was so damaged that it really drove prices up,” Nelson said. He added that a dozen eggs cost about $4.14 in December 2024 and rose to a high of $6.22 per dozen in March 2025 — but have since fallen to about $2.50 per dozen, according to data from the BLS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service.
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Egg prices have been on a roller coaster ride in recent years due to supply disruptions caused by an outbreak of bird flu. (Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Nelson added that egg prices were about 12% below the five-year average as of December 2025, as the market recovered from bird flu-related price shocks. The stabilization of the market comes as the USDA has increased detection activities to help limit outbreaks.
“USDA has made some dramatic improvements in the past year,” he explained, noting that the agency offers a wildlife assessment that looks for ways wild birds can infiltrate an egg farm, as well as a domestic assessment that considers ways to promote agricultural hygiene, such as taking a foot bath before entering an egg-laying coop.
“USDA offers these for free and then it’s up to you egg farmer to make the changes they need to secure their farms,” Nelson said, adding that it has “dramatically improved the ability to keep supplies in the pipeline.”
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Egg prices have fallen rapidly over the past year as the supply chain normalized following the bird flu outbreak. (I RYU/VCG via Getty Images)
There has been a slowdown over the past six months bird flu These cases allowed production to recover and increase, pushing prices below levels before the start of the larger outbreak.
However, the USDA’s wildlife monitoring has shown very high viral loads in recent months in wild migratory birds that traverse all four flyways that cross the U.S. from south to north, which could impact the egg, turkey and broiler industries.
Nelson noted that approximately 14 million birds were affected in the past 30 days, which was higher than some months of lower caseloads during supply chain normalization.
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Egg prices remain prone to volatility as farmers continue to manage bird flu detections. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)
He said there had been a total of about four million detections in March, largely attributed to two relatively large bird flu detections announced this week involving four million birds. egg production facilities.
“What that shows is that you can have almost no detections, it can just be a very low, smooth sailing situation, and all of a sudden you can have a detection on one of these larger farms and when that detection can take a lot of layers out of the pipeline very quickly,” Nelson said.
“We’re not seeing the impact of that change in supply yet, but if we see bird flu continuing to hit homes like this where you see a large number of affected birds month after month, it could very well push prices back up again,” he added.
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Nelson said when egg farmers’ flocks are hit by bird flu, it can take an emotional toll on farmers and also cause financial damage, because USDA compensation programs cover things like cleanup costs but not the production disruption that can last up to six months.
