Ever since COVID, everything from houses to sugar has been more expensive. In the last year, you might have heard of the “bird flu” in the news, and while this may seem like a problem that doesn’t concern humans, this has had a concerning impact on society, and poses a huge problem for ranchers and everyday citizens.
Avian Influenza (aka bird flu), is a highly contagious illness that mainly affects birds. Unlike regular illnesses caught by humans, a large portion of bird flu strains are fatal, and have killed over 7 million birds since September of 2025. This agonizing sickness has proven to be a huge health problem, and not only for birds. According to the USDA, there are over 1,790 herds of cows that have been affected. Charley Hastie, a Sophomore at Palisade remarked, “The bird flu will affect the weights of birds that we work with, and it can affect different portions of the internal anatomy. We constantly have issues of full livers, or different issues with organs failing and not working, causing them to not gain as much weight.” This not only causes a huge problem for people who raise birds, but for everyone who buys eggs and milk. Because of shortages, egg costs have increased 60% in many places compared to last year, making groceries like eggs or include eggs more expensive. Although many have noticed that currently the egg prices have gone down, this strain of flu is spreading across different flocks all over the country and is coming closer and closer to the Grand Valley.
From rising egg prices to sick cows, Bird flu has proved itself to be a bigger problem than just a small cold.
