It might now be a distant memory, but by the end of last winter, the average cost of a dozen eggs soared to a record high of $6.23. (It’s now at $3.49.)

The cause was H5N1, a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza — or bird flu — that wild birds shed near farms as they migrate for the winter. It’s now surging again in US poultry operations and could result in another winter of high egg prices — and tens of millions of dead birds.

Over the last two months, the virus was detected on nearly 50 commercial poultry farms, leading to the mass culling of 7.3 million farmed birds — more than during the same period in previous years. Three-quarters of those birds were egg-laying hens from just three egg factory farms.

Although that culling involves an enormous amount of animal suffering, the

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