Are You Cold?

Emperor penguin dad keeps his egg warm while waiting for his chick to hatch
Photo by Tony Bojkovski
Australian Antarctic Division

 

If you could visit Antarctica in winter, you’d find emperor penguin males gathered in colonies near the coast. They’re tightly huddled together to stay warm in temperatures that can dip as low as -40 degrees F (-40 degrees C), with winds as strong as 90 miles per hour (144 km/ hour).
For the next two months, these devoted dads will each incubate a single egg that holds his offspring. Each dad will also care for his chick when it first hatches. Penguin dads do all this while surviving only on fat reserves from the previous summer.

More

Covid and Egg Market

Egg prices on coaster ride and Covid-19

The egg market has been impacted by panic buying and how a change in demand has created unprecedented issues for egg producers who supplied the foodservice sector.

Retail orders for eggs increased dramatically in the beginning weeks of COVID-19-related panic buying. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported for three consecutive weeks that egg inventories were down 10%, which is a rapid decline, especially when higher inventory numbers were expected with Easter approaching.

By Deven King on April 29, 2020

No Eggs for Coronavirus Vaccine

Eggs don't help for coconavirus vaccine

The US keeps millions of chickens in secret farms to make flu vaccines. But their eggs won't work for coronavirus.
Few people know where the chickens are kept - their locations are undisclosed as a matter of national security.
Each day, hundreds of thousands of their eggs are trucked to facilities, where they are protected by guards and multimillion-dollar, government-funded security systems.
But these eggs aren't for breakfast; they're the source of your common flu shot.
For the past 80 years, much of the world has relied on chicken eggs for the production of influenza vaccines.

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, scientists and governments around the world are racing to develop a vaccine - but eggs won't be the answer, said John Nicholls, a Hong Kong University clinical professor of pathology.
Due to having different receptors and other characteristics, the novel coronavirus isn't able to replicate inside eggs the way flu viruses can.

By Jessie Yeung, CNN, March 29, 2020