With 22 consecutive four-week periods of sales growth and the FDA’s announcement late last year officially defining them as a “healthy food,” eggs have secured their place as staple in U.S. kitchens. However, the resilience of the F&B industry is being tested as its faces avian influenza, supply disruptions and rising prices.

Created in 1976, by an act of Congress, the American Egg Board is a farmer-funded organization dedicated to supporting research, education and the promotion of eggs. It represents over 400 farm entities.

R&FF met with the AEB and Emily Metz, president and CEO, in Atlanta at the 2025 International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE), one of the largest poultry and protein processing shows of its kind. HPAI, highly pathogenic avian influenza – or bird flu – and its impact on the poultry industry was a topic everyone seemed to be talking about.

“It's been a devastating two years for the industry. Just last year we lost over 40 million birds and we’ve started this year by losing more than 14 million,” Metz said. “We are in the fight of our lives, truly, and our farmers are fighting for their livelihood and their farms,” Metz said. “My message has been to keep calm and crack on.”

Since 2022, the U.S. has culled over 113 million birds in an effort to stop the spread of avian influenza.

“Our farmers are working around the clock on this. This disease is fatal for birds, which means that they will die an unpleasant death. Upon seeing symptoms and having confirmation of the virus, we euthanize them to prevent that suffering,” Metz said.

Culling birds is only the first step. Farms must then be cleaned and sanitized to make sure barns are prepared to receive pullets, the birds less than 14 weeks old that need to mature before laying eggs. Once mature, a hen lays about one egg per day.

The best case scenario is a six-month process but “right now we are not in the best case scenario. Our state and federal partners are overwhelmed. So, now, we’re probably looking at nine-plus months, if we’re lucky, on a full recovery,” she said.

Metz said the American Egg Board works with food processors and manufacturers who rely on eggs for recipe formulations.

“For manufacturing customers, they're irritated, right? Because they work really hard with all their ingredients to make it fit together and then price it accordingly,” she said. “There is no replacement for the egg and we have a lot of studies that show that. We know the consumer is looking for a clean label so maybe a replacement exists, but it's probably not 1 to 1.”

Late-night comedians and politicians alike have been keeping the cost of eggs forefront for consumers.

“We're in this delicate time right now, where I think Americans love of eggs are going to endure, no matter what. That being said, no one is going to be frustrated forever. So we're going to have to try to redouble our efforts here to understand the virus, understand the tools that we can bring to fight the virus and then work to fix it because we've got to,” Metz said. “We've made a really concerted effort to help (consumers) understand what what's happening with farmers right now, and I think by and large, the media has done a really fair job of reporting. I don't think people understand all the nuances of bird flu, but I think they know that it not about politics. It's about this disease and we need industry to come together – and we need all of our partners to do that – we need academia, we need government.”

For more on avian flu and its impact on egg farmers and the broader F&B industry, visit the American Egg Board online.