Worldwide egg shortage due to bird flu in US, UK
Here are some reasons why it’s time to switch to plant based alternatives because the egg industry is in trouble. Worldwide egg shortages are a reality. There are a number of causes, but the deadly avian flu is one of the main ones.
tHERE Is a global egg problem. One of the most popular breakfast dishes across the world is becoming more and more expensive everywhere from the US to the UK, to New Zealand to Korea.
And that’s assuming you you can even find them, since there aren’t many on the shelves right now at all. , as you can surely confirm if you’ve lately been to the grocery shop.
Yet why? Where did al the eggs go? It turns out that a number of diverse variables are causing scarcity worldwide. They are first and foremost fr more expensive to transport because of the rising cost of petroleum.
https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/why-go-vegan/animals
Additionally packaging and animal feed are becoming more expensive. However the fact that the birds that lay eggs are dying in their millions is, very simply, one of the main reasons why it’s difficult to locate eggs on the shelves right now.
The glove has experienced the greatest avian flu outbreak on record during the past year or so. According to a December Guardian article, since the epidemic started in October 2021, about 48 million birds haver perished in Europe and the UK either from the virus or through culling .
There are currently more than 53 million people in the US. Should the egg business be doomed as a result of this terrible pandemic? Here’s why some professionals think it ought to.
Avian flu
The first instance of a sickness that solely affected poultry was documented in Europe in the late 1800s. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, it was known as “fowl plague” but was really Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza HPAI at the time.
Although it was the disease’s first record, researchers think bird populations may have been exposed to it for millennia before then. Since then, “fowl plague” has been renamed “bird flu,” although both terms relate the same illness:
A very contagious and lethal strain in influenza that spreads among birds. There are various other forms of avian flu, but H5N1 is the kind that has lately been responsible for millions of deaths.
H5N1 does not now cause widespread human infection. And in the instances where it has been passed from birds to people, this has happened because of intimate contact.
However experts are worried viruses, after all, are continually evolving. “There are worries that it might become pandemic. This was the one that we were all actively monitoring before COVID was on anyone’s radar, a molecular virologist named Wendy Blay Puryear told the Guardian in January.
This worry is shared by the World Heath Organisation. The repercussions for public heath might be quite significant, the report warns, if the H5N1 virus were to evolve and become readily transmissible from person to person while preserving its potential to cause severe sickness.
Egg industry calls it a day?
Despite worries about public health, recent shortages and price increases have revealed how vulnerable the egg market is. Many farmers believe that slaughtering all of their livestock is the only way to stop an pandemic on their property.
Advocates for animal welfare claim this is immoral as well as totally unsustainable financially. Factory farms, where the majority of chickens are kept in the US, are already quite difficult from an animal welfare perspective, even in the absence of bird flu.
They hardly have enough room to turn around there- about the size of an A4 piece of paper. Investigations on other farms have also shown filthy conditions and birds that have been grown to be so big that their legs collapse.
The terrible treatment they receive on industrial farms leaves birds especially prone to infectious outbreaks, according to Annette Manusevich, agricultural campaign manager for World Animal Protection.
Chickens in factory farms spend their whole lives un small cages or crammed close together in enclosed barns with several other hens, creating the ideal environment for viruses and other illnesses to develop and swiftly spread.
In a piece for The Independent British journalist and animal rights activist Chas Newkey- Burden stated that he was relieved that there were egg shortages because it could prompt customers to consider their food choices more carefully.
Whether you intend to or not, he said , if you purchase eggs, you are endorsing this brutality. You support these farms every time you check out a pack of eggs at the grocery store, which is the only reason they are even in existence.
In addition to all of this, eggs have an impact on the environment, 14.5 % of all emissions come from the global cattle sector. And there is evidence that substantial water contamination is a result of chicken rearing in particular .
For example, studies in October 2022 revealed that runoff from large scale poultry farms may be a factor in the River Wye, one of the longest rivers in the UK, declining.
Plant based substitutes offer a solution
Consumers are being urged to consider the alternatives to chicken eggs right now by activists and plant based food companies alike. Manusevich stated, “We can all do our part by replacing eggs with plant based alternatives.”
Additionally eat just a vegan company published advertisements in January announcing the availability of their plant based egg products, Just Egg. The flu doesn’t affect plants.
It is true that brands of vegan eggs have not been impacted by the shortages. And that’s because they plainly don’t employ live chickens in the production of their goods. This indicates that their supply chains are now more reliable, and they are also more compassionate toward animals and the environment.
PETA activists recently distributed free vegan eggs from the plant based brand OGGs in Lincoln, UK. The animal right group observed that by reducing demand for their eggs, chickens would not be forced to live- and die- in these tragic conditions and the continued spread of bird flu.
Source: the guardian, theVeganSociety
