Avian Flu Responsible For More Expensive Holiday Turkey as per USDA

The US Department of Agriculture mentioned that celebration turkeys will be more pricey and smaller this season due to both inflation and avian flu sporadic cases across the country. Agriculture Department officials in reports published on Oct 21, 2022, the mean per-pound price for a turkey is $1.79, up from 99 cents per pound last October.

According to Federal officials, the extremely pathogenic avian flu has killed 47.72 million marketing poultry in the United States this year, with 7.4 million of them being turkeys. One of the most recent outbreaks occurred at an industrial turkey farm in Pennsylvania, killing 15,500 turkeys. Local grocery stores assure customers that they keep turkeys in stock even though they buy their birds in advance and though prices are rising.

In a report from Spectrum News, Dan Piron said that many commercial turkey producers butchered and froze their flock earlier in the year to avoid losing them to avian flu so the birds aren't as large as consumers might expect. Piron added that the shortage was worse over the summer than it is nowand prices remain high. They do not foresee another scarcity, but the size of the birds may be reduced, and consumers may choose a smaller turkey this year, emphasized the manager of Green Hills Farms Grocery in Syracuse.

The Avian Influenza Influence

As CNBC reports, a poultry industry publication, the current strain of avian flu is more contagious and causes severe illness. When one bird in a flock is diagnosed with avian flu, the entire flock is contaminated and cannot be saved. The disease spreads through nasal secretions, saliva, and feces from wild birds to chickens and turkeys. Infected poultry can also get sick from contaminated surfaces like water or the ground.

Avian influenza Type A infections produce bird flu, which spreads spontaneously among waterfowl and therefore can contaminate wild birds, farmed poultry, and other animals, but seldom humans. There are over a dozen bird flu strains, which are classed as low pathogenic or very pathogenic based on their propensity to transmit infection and kill birds.

The strain now circulating in the United States, Eurasian H5N1, is considered particularly pathogenic. It affects the respiratory and digestive systems and may swiftly wreak havoc on a whole flock. In birds, symptoms include a loss of appetite, lethargy, swelling, and decreased egg production.

Flu Affecting Poultry Prices

The current H5N1 strain was originally identified in both Asia and Europe. In the United Kingdom, eggs cannot be advertised as free-range since chickens have been pent up for several months to avoid illness.

The USDA verified the first US incidence of a wild fowl in South Carolina in mid-January. The first occurrence at a commercial farm occurred just a few months later in a turkey flock in Dubois County, Indiana. Infections have since been recorded in agricultural and small flocks in at least 42 states. To combat the transmission of the disease, about 6 million hens and turkeys were butchered in September alone.

Higher inflation, increasing unemployment, and supply chain concerns have already led to overall increases in meat costs, as has the conflict in Ukraine, a significant producer of grain needed to feed animals. USDA reports that the cost of an 8- to 16-pound turkey on October 21 was $1.99 per pound, a 73% increase from 2021. As reported by the American Farm Bureau, fresh uncompressed, skinless turkey breast reached a record average price of $6.70 per pound in Sept, an increase of 112% over the previous year.

Avian Flu in the US

The very first bird flu outbreak in the United States occurred between December 2014 and June 2015, resulting in the destruction of more than 50 million hens and turkeys in what the USDA labeled the greatest poultry safety disaster in US history.

Gro Intelligence mentioned that one in every 12 turkeys perished from the virus or from being culled, as did one in every eight egg-laying hens. During mid-April and mid-May 2015, 80 percent of the birds, or 39 million, were exterminated, primarily in Midwestern states. Prices soon surged as a result. Based on the USDA's Economic Research Service, wholesale chicken breast prices climbed 17% domestically in the first five weeks of the pandemic and stayed inflated for years.

As a result of multiple nations imposing import prohibitions on US poultry, the estimated price of a dozen eggs increased by 60% while exports fell precipitously. In contrast to the last pandemic, outbreaks have reached the Atlantic Flyway, a significant north-south migratory corridor that runs along the Atlantic Coast from Greenland to South America, and affected birds in the DelMarVa peninsula.

There is no cure for avian influenza in poultry, just a containment strategy in which every chicken that has come into contact with the disease is slaughtered. Growers are frequently ordered to kill every bird on their field even though the federal government normally reimburses them for a portion of the expense.

Poultry industry leaders claim they are implementing tight rules to restrict the virus's transmission, including restricting foot traffic on farms, eliminating the sharing of machinery, sealing any holes in barns, and ensuring that water and feed are protected and contaminant-free. As per USDA, federal officials have already been monitoring wild birds, which serves as an "early warning system" for epidemics among commercial flocks. If an illness is discovered on farmland, a six-mile "exclusion zone" is usually established, with exports suspended and birds examined regularly.

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