In bird flu fight, Agriculture Department almost doubling the $1.1 billion already spent

Despite a major federal investment to help egg and poultry producers bounce back from bird flu losses, finding eggs at a reasonable price — or any eggs at all — remains a tough task for shoppers across the U.S.

In January, egg prices rose 15.2%, and economists say they expect prices to continue to rise this year. 

The increase is due to the limited number of hens laying eggs right now. There are fewer hens because of federal bird flu control measures. They require farmers to kill their chickens if they discover a bird flu case in a flock — a process known as “culling” — to try to prevent the viral disease from spreading. 

When farmers cull their flocks to prevent the spread of a disease like the bird flu, they are eligible for public money to help them replace the flocks.

Since 2020, the Department of Agriculture has paid $1.1 billion to hundreds of egg producers who had to cull their flocks to stop bird flu from spreading, according to a CBS News analysis of federal data.

Now, the USDA says it will send $400 million more to farmers who need new chickens. The agency also says it will pay $500 million for biosecurity measures and $100 million “for vaccine research, action to reduce regulatory burdens, and exploring temporary import options.”

Frank Singleton, a spokesperson for Wayne-Sanderson Farms — the third largest poultry producer in the nation — is glad the USDA is helping. 

He says his company has 23 plants and 2,000 partner farms in seven states, employing 26,000 people across the Southeast and processing 21 million broiler chickens a week for sale of their meat into the consumer market. 

Wayne-Sanderson Farms received more than $600,000 from the USDA’s bird flu assistance program to replace three flocks the company culled after discovering bird flu cases in 2023 and 2024. 

Singleton says the checks are an important investment to help the farms his company sponsors get back on track. 

“It’s a partnership with the farmers, and the consumer, and our company, to make sure we can continue to feed America,” he says. “It would be very difficult to get a farmer to take a risk like that without a farm partner like Wayne-Sanderson Farms. So that’s where we step in. We make sure that we do our part, our due diligence, help them get back up to speed, and work to make sure those funds are available to them.”

Culling flocks and shielding them from bird flu

The process of culling is arduous. Singleton says his company sprays a foam agent over the affected chickens to kill them quickly. 

“Different farms and different companies have different methods,” he said. “We use a humane method to euthanize all the birds. It’s all supervised by regulatory folks and our teams.”

“Ours is an approved, USDA-approved method where a foaming agent used, and it’s very quick,” Singleton continued. “So, those birds have to be disposed of. The house itself has to be cleaned up and sanitized. So it’s a long process, and it takes awhile for the farmer to get back up and running. So we work with them directly to make sure that happens.”

Singleton says there are several proactive measures his company is taking to protect farms from exposure in the first place. 

Biosecurity measures are so tight for Wayne-Sanderson Farms, our CBS News cameras were not allowed inside a farm or facility. 

“It just takes one vector to infect a flock so, from the time people come to the farm, using disinfectant sprays, wearing coveralls, wearing personal protective gear, goggles, those kinds of things — limiting the type of people, the number of people,” Singleton explained. “We make sure our people have the equipment, they have the chemicals, the disinfectants, and they have the knowledge. … It’s very critical. Every individual has to do their part to make sure that this doesn’t happen.”

His company supports a recent proposal from other egg and poultry industry leaders to allow broiler eggs — eggs typically used to hatch chicks — to be used in consumer products amid the national shortage of traditional eggs. 

After a law change in 2009 that stipulated that eggs must be refrigerated sooner if sold into the consumer market, broiler egg producers were no longer able to send excess broiler eggs to consumer companies needing them for things like cakes and pies, because broiler eggs are typically stored at a higher temperature during the first 48 hours prior to shipment. 

Singleton says his company throws out 560,000 broiler eggs a week — about 2% of the total 26 million broiler eggs Wayne-Sanderson Farms produces. 

If the Food and Drug Administration were to allow the broiler eggs to be used in consumer products, Singleton says, it would be a win-win.

“We certainly want to do our part to help feed the country and (solve) a need where a need is there; certainly (that) would help us from a waste standpoint and just from employees having to work on that particular aspect of it,” Singleton said. “So, it’s really just a cost savings and an efficiency savings and putting food back into the marketplace for consumers.”

In a statement to CBS News, the Food and Drug Administration says it is still considering the proposal.

A smaller farm’s approach in the bird flu saga

Another company currently able to fill the need is a small independent farm in the northern Alabama city of Madison called Southard Farms. 

It has been in co-owner Keith Southard’s family for five generations. Southard turned the farm into a pasture-raised poultry, egg and pork production operation in 2019 and never dreamed his business would be booming so soon. 

He says over the last month, his phone has been ringing off the hook with restaurants seeking eggs. 

“It’s been it’s been crazy. It’s been busy. My phone rings constantly,” Southard said. “Huge, huge opportunity for growth, and people are searching now … not just to find eggs but something different — to find good eggs, fresh, local, that they don’t just depend on a store to provide them; they know where it’s coming from.”

Southard’s father grows grows crops on the farm and they in turn use the crops as feed for his chickens. 

He has 900 laying hens for eggs and 700 broiler chickens — or chickens used for meat. 

Right now, Southard’s hens lay about 400 eggs a week. A few weeks ago, Southard signed a contract with a restaurant in Birmingham to sell it 500 dozen eggs a week. Southard says he expects his total egg production in the next few months will be just under 1,000 dozen a week to meet the demand. 

Unlike in traditional egg farms, where laying hens are kept in an indoor warehouse, Southard’s chickens live an outdoor lifestyle, rotating regularly onto fresh grass to graze. He says the pasture-raised format keeps his chickens’ immune systems stronger. 

“No medicines needed to keep them going. So, we just use nature’s benefits,” Southard says. 

However, the outdoor living could make them more susceptible to coming into contact with wild birds that could be carrying the avian (bird) flu. 

“There’s always that risk,” Southard says. “We just hope that it doesn’t affect us.”

Last year, Southard had to cull his flock after chickens got hit with a bacterial infection, different than bird flu, called mycoplasma. He says the experience was devastating. 

“I noticed a few symptoms, and then within three days, we went from a normal amount of eggs per day to almost zero, and it was very similar symptoms to the avian flu, so (we) immediately took the hens to the state lab for testing … and once we got the results in, there really wasn’t any answer but to just cull the flock and start over,” Southard recalled. 

He said he and his farmhand had to personally kill each chicken by cutting their throats to make it as quick and painless for the birds as possible. 

“Nothing I want to see again, that’s for sure,” Southard said. 

Because mycoplasma is not considered a “highly-pathogenic” disease, he did not qualify for the USDA’s program to receive a check to help him finance the replacement of his chickens. 

“We just bared through it and kept going,” Southard says. 

And kept going he did. 

Southard took us to Farm Burger in Huntsville, Alabama, one of the restaurants that uses his chicken meat and eggs. The staff affectionately calls out, “The Chicken Man’s here!” upon his arrival to deliver his product in person each week. 

The restaurant’s co-owner and manager says Southard has been a blessing to his business because Southard has kept his prices low at a time when other restaurants in neighboring states have seen egg prices more than double in the last few months. 

Low prices for the restaurant also mean costs don’t have to be passed on to customers. 

A CBS News analysis of federal data found some farms received large checks from the USDA indemnity and reimbursement program after culling their flocks last year — one egg producer received $10 million. 

Asked his thoughts about the taxpayer expense, Southard said, “I think there’s probably, there’s definitely a question there about when USDA should get involved or not. So, I think that should be looked into to some more, because obviously we see still these big supply problems. So, I don’t think we have the right answer yet, but it should be looked into some more.”

With supply issues and high egg costs expected at least another year, Southard says it’s important to protect small farms. 

“Small farmers like us, family farms, play a key role, because it takes away the big consolidation that’s happened and spreads out the risk where you have more farms across the state or country and more farmers,” Southard says. “So, if one gets hit, it’s not as big of an effect on the whole supply chain.”

Grace Manthey

contributed to this report.