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A new report by the group Food and Water Watch says egg companies are exploiting the bird flu outbreak for profit in Iowa.

Data show egg prices in the Midwest were already sharply higher long before the latest wave of avian flu.

Some 75 percent of egg-laying hens are raised on almost 350 factory farms in the U.S. - each housing about 850,000 birds.

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Now over $5 a dozen, egg prices in Iowa grocery stores are nearly twice what they were two years ago.

Rebecca Wolf, senior food policy analyst with Food and Water Watch, said highly consolidated corporate egg producers are using the outbreak and their market control to drive the numbers still higher - even though egg production costs have remained nearly flat.

"Prices rising before the bird flu outbreak, and now an astronomical impact with the actual, real impacts of the bird flu," said Wolf, "which is a classic case of what we say is price-gouging consumers, so really taking advantage of that market control."

Iowa raises more egg-laying hens on factory farms than any other state, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Iowa has lost nearly 30 million birds in the current avian flu outbreak.

As the nation's leader in raising egg-laying hens, Wolf said Iowa's consolidation makes the industry fragile and highly sensitive to any disruption. She claimed operators designed it that way.

"So, if one birds is sick in one of those 300-some facilities, which is what we're seeing," said Wolf, "then all of those birds, in this case, have been culled for the bird flu."

Chickens are more susceptible to disease in cramped confinements, and concentrated manure also threatens air and groundwater quality.

Industry operators say they're trying to address potential environmental pollution while meeting consumer demand for high-quality poultry.