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.

The U.S. will invest up to $1 billion to combat the spread of bird flu, as well as increase imports of eggs in an effort to drive down high prices, agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said on Wednesday.

The Agriculture Department on Wednesday said it will spend $1 billion to tackle the bird flu in a campaign to address soaring egg prices that appears, in a departure for the administration, to acknowledge the importance of imports to keep prices down.