Mercadona announced in July that 65% of the eggs sold in its supermarkets came from free-range chickens, i.e. those raised outdoors. Yesterday, Thursday, the company updated this statement on its page web with two short sentences: “Due to the avian flu epidemic and the sanitary measures taken 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 Mercadona data update comes seven days after the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food ordered the confinement of all free-range poultry farms in Spain to prevent the spread of this disease. “Outdoor poultry farming is prohibited,” the department specifically said in a statement.
Given that the importation of eggs into Spain is residual, all eggs arriving in Spanish supermarkets from now on and for the entire duration of the decreed confinement will be, in facteggs from hens raised in captivity. Mercadona’s update can be understood in this context.
However, consulted sources from the food distribution sector point out that, according to European legislation which includes rules on the marketing of eggs, “when temporary restrictions have been imposed in accordance with European Union legislation, eggs may be marketed as free-range despite this restriction”.
Therefore, as long as the measures decreed by the Ministry maintain their temporary nature, distribution chains will not be obliged to inform consumers that eggs sold outdoors were not laid by free-range hens, the sector underlines.
According to what was indicated, as of November 5, 139 outbreaks of avian influenza had been found among more than 2,000 existing poultry farms 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 being cleaned. On the 7th, 450,000 birds were sacrificed due to this disease on a farm in Valdemoro (Madrid).
In 2025, the price of eggs increased by about 20% and has already been leading the increase in food prices in the shopping basket of the National Institute of Statistics for several months (from September to October they increased by 5.1%). In the control session on Wednesday, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Entrepreneurs, Carlos Body, assured the Government that it will “evaluate and monitor” the evolution of the price of this food in case it is necessary to adopt containment measures.
The H5N1 virus is highly contagious and deadly to animals. For this reason it is necessary to “avoid contact both in feeders and drinkers” between free-range and free-range birds, Minister Luis Planas indicated on the 13th. In January, the Ministry of Health warned in a report that cold weather and wild bird migration would increase circulation in Europe and called for “extreme biosecurity measures” on poultry farms.
In July, animal production and health authorities confirmed an outbreak at a turkey farm in Ahillones (Badajoz). At that moment, the negative streak that the Spanish poultry sector had been experiencing since February 2023, when the last outbreak was declared in another farm of the same species in the province of Lleida, came to an end.
An adult on the U.S. West Coast this month became the first case of human infection with H5N5, a subtype of influenza virus that causes bird flu.
