Flu outbreak disrupts egg supply chain, sparking shortages and rising costs

Jan. 29, 2025, 11:28 p.m.

An outbreak of avian influenza has devastated poultry flocks across the U.S. in recent weeks, leading to rising egg prices and widespread shortages. Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) report no major disruptions to dining hall offerings, but some food-insecure students face the brunt of rising costs.

This highly infectious strain of H5N1 bird flu has led to the deaths of millions of egg-laying hens. According to Mengyang Zhang, a postdoctoral scholar in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department who specializes in environmental virology, the main reason for the shortage is not the fatality of the respiratory disease, but the cautious strategies to prevent potential transmission.

“Once one chicken is detected with H5N1, the whole farm has to be killed,” she said. As of today in the U.S., per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 147 million poultry have been affected.

The outbreak demonstrates how fragile supply chains can ripple through to consumers, as explained by Stanford supply chain expert Barchi Gillai, M.S. ’97 PhD ’01 and economist Matthew O. Jackson, PhD ’88. Jackson described the current situation as “basic supply and demand.” When less eggs are available, prices go up fairly quickly. Plus, Gillai noted, consumers often rush to stock up when they notice shortages, which drives up demand and exacerbates the problem.

Although R&DE’s purchasing prices have gone up, Stanford dining halls have maintained their menu offerings through a longstanding relationship with a sustainable egg supplier. However, the spike in the cost of eggs has forced Second Harvest, a key partner in Stanford’s free Food Pantry Pop-up, to adjust its offerings by stopping the purchase of meat. For students relying on the pantry for food security, that could mean a significant change in grocery distributions.

The rising cost of eggs has had ripple effects for students beyond the pantry as well. “[The egg shortage] definitely has meant that I don’t pick up eggs that often anymore—before I didn’t really have to think about it as much,” wrote Sarah Tanveer, a postdoctoral scholar at the School of Medicine. “Cost of living in this part of the country is already really high, so having a staple item for breakfast be so expensive adds to the burden.”

To help mitigate future outbreaks before they spiral into crises, Zhang emphasized the need for early detection methods like wastewater-based epidemiology.

While the current situation may seem bleak, “it’s somewhat miraculous that the system works as well as it does given how complex and global our supply chains have become,” Jackson wrote.



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