“Egg farmers are in the fight of our lives and we are losing,” he said.

Though the avian flu, or H5N1, has circulated among American poultry flocks for years, an outbreak starting in 2022 has wreaked havoc on farms, killing over 156 million birds and sending egg prices skyrocketing. The virus then got a foothold among dairy cows last year, and this month, a different strain - tied to severe infections in humans - was found in the cattle.