Bird Flu Creates Egg Shortages in Japan, Affecting Restaurant Chains, Retailers

A file image of a customer looking at carton of eggs at a store in Tokyo, Japan on 2 Feb. 2, 2007. Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images

Restaurant chain operators and retailers in Japan are struggling to source eggs, according to reports, as the country faces its worst avian influenza outbreak.

Teikoku Databank said that at least 18 listed restaurant chain operators in Japan, including McDonald’s Holdings Co., have temporarily stopped selling egg-related menu items as of March 5, Bloomberg reported.

Meanwhile, some egg products have been taken off the shelves of convenience stores like 7-Eleven since January due to supply shortages in the East Asian nation, according to Teikoku Databank.

The wholesale price of eggs in Japan near-doubled to 327 yen ($2.39) per kilogram last month from the year prior, the financial research firm said.

Egg shortages and rising prices are due to the spread of avian flu in Japan, which forced the culling of some 15 million hens. The disease has spread to more than half of the country’s total 47 prefectures since the first cases were reported in October.

Local authorities have urged poultry farmers to take thorough measures to protect their flocks as they believe the virus is carried by migratory birds wintering in Japan, local media NHK News reported.

Global Issue

Japan is not the only country struggling with an avian influenza outbreak. Focus Taiwan reported that Taiwan’s daily production of eggs dropped to 22.4 million last month due to the avian influenza outbreak, causing prices to rise for both chicken and duck eggs.

“It’s still too early to say when the supply of chicken eggs will return to normal, despite the government’s promise that the shortage will end late this month,” said Kao Chuan-mo, chairman of Taiwan’s egg sales association.

The country has placed an order for 5 million eggs from Australia to help with the shortfall, with the first delivery of three having arrived on Feb. 28.

Outbreaks of the virus have spread throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

In the United States, total poultry deaths topped 58 million last month, surpassing the previous 2015 record, according to U.S. government data.

Rescued chickens gather in an aviary at Farm Sanctuary’s Southern California Sanctuary in Acton, Calif., on Oct. 5, 2022. A wave of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu has now entered Southern California as the fall bird migration sets in, raising concerns for wild birds and poultry farms in the region. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The disease is extremely deadly to poultry, so much, so that entire flocks are often culled even when only one bird tests positive.

Medical specialists now warn that the disease is a year-round problem as poultry farmers struggle to protect their flocks.

It appears that waterfowl like ducks and geese can now carry bird flu without appearing sick and easily spread them to domesticated poultry like chickens and turkeys, experts say.

Wild birds are primarily responsible for spreading the virus and can carry the disease without dying and introduce it to poultry through contaminated bodily waste products.

Not Usually Harmful to People

The avian flu can also infect wild mammals and people, especially those in contact with infected birds, but the World Health Organization says the risk to humans is low.

Rose Acre Farms, the country’s second-largest egg producer in the United States, said it had lost about 1.5 million hens at a farm in Guthrie County, Iowa, last year.

All personnel who enter their barns were required to shower first to remove any trace of the virus, CEO Marcus Rust, told Reuters.

After a company farm in Weld County, Colorado, got hit twice within about six months, resulting in the culling of more than 3 million hens, Rust said, “we got nailed,” adding, “you just pull your hair out.”

Rust said he eventually concluded that the wind blew the virus in from nearby fields where geese flew overhead.

Bryan Jung and Reuters contributed to this report.