Egg theft is becoming the new heist, as thieves set their sights on breakfast foods because of the massive spike in prices. The bird flu outbreak and authorities’ insistence on culling millions of birds are not only slowing the spread of the virus, but they are also jacking up the cost of eggs and poultry meat in the United States.
A new surveillance video shows two suspects loading hundreds of dollars worth of eggs and other breakfast foods into a white van before fleeing the scene. The burglary happened at Luna Park Café in Seattle. The thieves stole one hundred thousand eggs, worth approximately $40,000, at Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs facility.
Egg Prices Continue To Rise As Rulers Cull Chickens Over Bird Flu Scare
“It could happen once, it could happen again,” CEO of Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs Tom Flocco said. “We are putting additional measures in place.”
So far, about 148 million birds have been culled, most of them never testing positive for the virus. The mass culling has started to affect not only consumers but those who produce the food we eat. “It’s a staggering number, there is no doubt,” said Jodie Guest, a professor of epidemiology with Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, according to a report by CBS News.
In just the last month, more than 20 million birds have been impacted by bird flu across the country. “Impacted by” means killed or looked at another bird that was determined to have avian influenza.
“Based on the amount of birds that we have lost in the last few months and the hen population, there just isn’t enough production to support the amount of demand that we have,” said Karyn Rispoli, managing director of eggs at the price-tracking firm Expana. “We’re at a point now where we’re truly in a shortage.”
There has been no evidence of human-to-human transmission yet, although 67 people have been infected in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most had direct contact with sick or dead animals. Officials said there still has been no human-to-human spread of the bird flu.
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