Sat Feb 01 16:19:10 IST 2025: ## White House Press Secretary Misrepresents Bird Flu Culling in Explanation of Egg Shortage

**Washington, D.C. –** White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed the current egg shortage to President Biden’s administration, claiming the mass culling of over 100 million chickens under Biden’s leadership caused a lack of egg supply. However, a fact-check reveals this statement to be misleading.

While it is true that over 100 million egg-laying chickens have perished since 2022 due to avian influenza (bird flu), the deaths resulted from both the virus itself and proactive culling measures to prevent its spread. Crucially, this culling policy is not a recent development; it was also employed under the Trump administration and during previous outbreaks.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a long-standing policy of depopulating entire flocks where bird flu is detected, a strategy supported by veterinary experts who emphasize its necessity in controlling the virus’s transmission and protecting public health. This policy is mandated by the 2002 Animal Health Protection Act. The USDA’s response plan, updated in 2017 under the Trump administration, explicitly prioritizes rapid depopulation of infected poultry. Similar depopulation measures were undertaken during the 2015 bird flu outbreak under the Obama administration.

Data from the USDA shows that millions of birds were culled during both the Trump and Obama administrations to combat avian influenza outbreaks. The current outbreak is significantly larger, impacting the egg supply and driving up prices, but the underlying policy remains consistent.

Egg prices have indeed skyrocketed, rising from $1.60 per dozen in February 2021 to over $7 in some regions currently. While the Biden administration is now facing the consequences of this large-scale outbreak and subsequent egg shortage, the underlying cause and the USDA’s response strategy have been consistent across multiple administrations. Leavitt’s statement, therefore, omits crucial context and is considered partially accurate but misleading.

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