“Luckily, our California egg industry has avoided any bird flu in commercial flocks,” California Poultry Federation President Bill Mattos wrote in an email. California’s layers now number almost 14 million, and they have so far been spared by the outbreak. Flocks roughly doubled between November 2018, when Proposition 12 passed, and January 2022, when the law took effect. To be sure, the number of cage-free layers has grown rapidly in recent years. The difference is, cage-free flocks make up only about 30% of the U.S. “The current outbreak has impacted all types of farms, regardless of size or production style,” a USDA spokeswoman wrote in an email. So far, both types of birds have been stricken with the virus at similar rates. Although cage-free hens may be somewhat more likely to come into contact with the wild birds that infect flocks with avian influenza, their enclosed counterparts can more easily spread the disease once it reaches a farm.
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