Bird flu is sweeping through egg-laying chickens in the United States at an unprecedented rate. So far in 2025, 30 million layers, as they’re known, have been culled, close to the 38 million killed throughout all of last year: Nearly 10 percent of the country’s annual number of egg-layers have been wiped out.

European Union wholesale egg prices have climbed to the highest level in more than a decade as bird flu outbreaks continue to roil the industry across the world.