Bird flu cases are spiking again after a summer respite

Bird flu cases are rising earlier than expected as wild birds migrate. That could make for a challenging autumn, but it's too early to say whether egg prices will go up.

It was a quiet summer for bird flu: Egg prices fell a bit, fewer sick poultry flocks were culled on farms, and officials took a breath.

“It was lovely,” said Shauna Voss, the assistant director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.

But it didn’t last.

Bird flu is spreading again, now that wild water fowl — geese, ducks and cranes — have begun their seasonal migrations. As the birds travel, they mingle at lakes and ponds and share viruses.

In poultry, bird flu cases are spiking earlier than expected. More than 4 million poultry birds have been culled in the last month, in states including Minnesota and Iowa, after members of their flock tested positive for the virus, called H5N1. The trend corresponds to a spike in infections detected among wild birds in northern states.