Shopping for turkey? What to know about bird flu, prices ahead of Thanksgiving
Canadians planning their Thanksgiving dinners can breathe easy this year.
There is “abundant supply” of turkey in the country ahead of the busy holiday season, producers say, but farmers are still wary of the risks of bird flu that disrupted supply last year.
The turkey industry was one of the hardest hit by the disease in 2022, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
So far this year, one million birds have been impacted by avian influenza detected in 47 locations across seven provinces, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) told Global News.
Out of these, 12 infected premises had turkeys on them along with other species, CFIA said.
Turkey Farmers of Canada (TFC), which represents more than 500 turkey farmers across the country, said it is monitoring the avian flu situation moving into fall and is in regular communication with the CFIA.
“Currently, there have been only a few isolated cases of avian influenza in poultry flocks this season, and we have no concerns about avian influenza impacting turkey availability for the holiday seasons in 2023,” Phil Boyd, executive director of Turkey Farmers of Canada, told Global News in an emailed statement.
Turkey groups say the sector has bounced back from underproduction and inflationary pressures that elevated prices.
“We’re not expecting any shortages heading into the holiday period this year,” said Natalie Veles, executive director of the B.C. Turkey Marketing Board.
“Our producers have gotten right back into business after last year’s case(s) of avian influenza that really had a big impact on our sector,” she told Global News in an interview.
As of Sept. 28, an estimated 7.7 million birds have been impacted by the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also
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