Soaring egg prices have consumers boiling, and on Wednesday, the United States Department of Agriculture blamed rising costs on the bird flu epidemic and said it will take new steps to quell the outbreak.

Dr. Carlson said with only conditional approval, there are still many steps to accomplish, and that could take a year or two before the vaccine is released in large quantities.

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins rolled out the US Department of Agriculture’s $1 billion plan to lessen the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak and deal with the major increases in egg prices around the United States.