It could take years to make a full recovery from the devastating impact of the bird flu, but steps are underway to help, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.
This includes bringing in eggs from other countries like South Korea and Turkey.
Rollins joined Gov. Mike DeWine in Darke County on Monday to meet with egg producers and talk about their response.
The group gathered at Weaver Eggs in Versailles, Ohio, for a tour and media event. Rollins said Ohio has been among the top states for cases.
"There's no part of America that has been more ravaged with the avian bird flu than where we stand right now and so that's why we're here," she said. "Hopefully I'll be able to get back here sooner rather than later, but we'll stay in constant touch with the governor, with your ag director and with these farmers to ensure that we can get this back."
Across Ohio, 76 locations have been hit since the end of December but cases are now trending downward.
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Rollins said the wholesale price of eggs has come down since they released a five point plan in February to respond to the outbreak.
“The wholesale price has come down 56%. Those numbers are undisputed," she said. "What you're hearing, and what a lot of the mainstream media is talking about, are the retail prices. And those often come after the wholesale pricing come down.”
According to Rollins, the average price of wholesale eggs have dropped between 56 and 58% in the last four to six weeks.
She said the administration also looked at importing eggs as a temporary fill for farmers as they recover.
"We had immediate agreements reached with Turkey and South Korea and a few other countries to get some — again for the shorter term, while our egg farmers here repopulate," Rollins said.
According to Rollins, a full recovery from the devastating impact of this outbreak could take years.
"I mean, these are farmers, third, fourth, fifth, sixth generation egg farmers that have had to depopulate millions upon millions of their egg layers," she said. "You can't fix that overnight."
The administration is also discussing sourcing eggs from broiler chickens to increase supply.
