Mercadona announced in July that 65% of the eggs sold in its supermarkets came from free-range chickens, those that are raised outdoors. Yesterday, Thursday, the company updated that statement on its page web with two brief sentences: “Due to the outbreak and the sanitary measures applied to protect animal health, this percentage has been temporarily reduced. The situation is specific and we will return to normal levels as soon as possible.”
The update of the data occurs seven days after the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food ordered all poultry farms that are raised outdoors in Spain to prevent the spread of this disease. “The raising of poultry outdoors is prohibited,” the department expressly stated in a statement.
Given that the importation of eggs into Spain is residual, all the eggs that arrive at Spanish supermarkets from now on and for the duration of the decreed confinement will be, in facteggs from hens raised in captivity. In that context, Mercadona’s update is understood.
However, sources from the food distribution sector consulted highlight that, according to the European regulation that includes egg marketing standards, “when temporary restrictions have been imposed in accordance with European Union legislation, eggs may be marketed as free-range despite said restriction.”
Thus, as long as the measures decreed by the Ministry maintain their temporary nature, distribution chains will not be obliged to inform consumers that the eggs sold as free-range have not been laid by free-range hens, the sector points out.
According to what they indicate, as of November 5, 139 outbreaks of avian flu had been found among the more than 2,000 poultry farms that exist in Spain. So far, they confirm, no new outbreaks have been detected. The eggs from the chickens on these farms have not been marketed and the facilities are in the process of being cleaned. On the 7th due to this disease on a farm in Valdemoro (Madrid).
In 2025, the price of eggs has increased by around 20% and has already been leading the increases in food prices in the shopping basket of the National Institute of Statistics for several months (from September to October they became more expensive by 5.1%). The Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Carlos Body, assured the Government this Wednesday in the control session that he will “evaluate and monitor” the evolution of the price of this food in case it is necessary to take containment measures.
The H5N1 virus is highly contagious and deadly to animals. For this reason, it is necessary to “avoid contact in both the feeders and waterers” between free-range and free-range birds, indicated Minister Luis Planas on the 13th. In January the Ministry of Health warned in a report that the cold and the cold were going to increase circulation in Europe, and called for “biosecurity measures to be taken to the extreme” in poultry farms.
In July, the health and animal production authorities confirmed an outbreak in (Badajoz). At that moment, the streak that the Spanish poultry sector had been experiencing since February 2023 was broken, when the last outbreak had been declared in another farm of the same species in the province of Lleida.
An adult on the west coast of the United States this month became infected with H5N5, a subtype of influenza viruses that cause bird flu.
