The problem is not that there is a risk of eating chicken in Spain: it is that it is going to get very expensive

In November 2023, Luciana Gallo and her team toured Punta León, a protected natural area on the southern coast of Patagonia. “It was like walking on a battlefield,” explained in SINC. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It was truly shocking: mountains of dead birds on the beach, thousands of elephants and sea lions dying.”

The bird flu had reached that remote place in Argentina. A few weeks ago we confirmed that had arrived at the antarctic island from South Georgia killing 50,000 females elephant seal These days, however, the news caught us closer: it had also arrived in Spain.

And the truth is that while the headlines are filled with bird flu, mass confinements and health alerts, chicken continues to be a central food in our diet. So it is logical that panic has spread.

And, of course, that is a problem: a huge problem.

Although not the one we tend to think. Although we are witnessing live and direct the largest epizootic of which we have records, the WHO continues to consider that the general risk to public health posed by A(H5N1) is low. Because, as Sergio Ferrer points out a few months ago, the most surprising thing about what we are seeing these years is that, “despite being immersed in a massive and historic wildlife mortality event, very few cases have been detected in humans.”

And of course, there is no risk of contagion from consuming chicken or eggs from the supermarket. “No one has caught the bird flu virus from eating properly cooked animals or animal products,” said Jatin M. Vyasfrom Columbia University and he was right.

Today, eating well-cooked poultry products is safe. That’s not the problem.

And what is the problem? That the last thing a sector subjected to increasing costs, mandatory investments and minimum margins needed is a “global pandemic“. The consequences are clear in chicken meat.

According to the Ministry of Agriculturethe price at origin of chicken meat in Spain was around €2.37/kg in week 38 of 2025. That is, an increase of 4% compared to the same moment in 2024. A moment in which, thanks to inflation, the price was already high. In Europe, the situation is worse: the price of broiler chicken has exceeded €3/kg for the first time and that represents an increase of 11.2% year-on-year. Something similar happens with eggs..

And we’re talking about chicken, mind you. Chicken is not just another product: for years it has been the cheapest meat per kilo of protein. That is to say, It is the cheap protein par excellence. If the price breaks, the balance of the entire country’s shopping basket is broken.

We have a serious problem around the corner. We better not miss the shot.

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In Xataka |The United States has been immersed in extreme egg prices for months. Spain now faces the same problem

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The problem is not that there is a risk of eating chicken in Spain: it is that it is going to get very expensive

was originally published in

Xataka

by
Javier Jimenez

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