This Thanksgiving, the cost of putting turkey on the table is going up, thanks not just to inflation or supply chain issues, but to the ongoing bird flu epidemic ravaging U.S. factory farms and the failure of both government and industry to control it.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus has been tearing through poultry farms since early 2022. In 2025 so far, bird flu has hit over 100 commercial turkey farms across the United States, leading to the mass killing (“depopulation”) of 3 million turkeys, adding to the catastrophic loss of 14.7 million turkeys between 2022 and 2024. Minnesota has been hit hardest, leading to the killing of nearly 900,000 birds this year. In Ohio, 41 farms have been affected, wiping out more than half a million turkeys. We should brace for more: the outbreaks accelerate each autumn with the seasonal migration of infected wild birds. Already this fall, there have been 36 new outbreaks, including 18 in September and 18 more in October.
The situation is fast evolving, there is no end to new bird flu outbreaks in sight, and consumers are paying the price.
USDA projects that the wholesale price of turkey will average $1.19 per pound in 2025, up 26.6% from last year, attributed largely to bird flu shrinking the nation’s turkey supply. USDA reports that turkey meat production in the first half of 2025 fell 9.7% from the same period last year. Reduced supply is naturally going to raise prices for consumers and keep them high. But this is not a case of industry falling victim to an unavoidable disaster; it’s the result of a repeated refusal to responsibly address a critical public health threat.
Many of the largest turkey companies, including Butterball and Jennie-O, have received millions in taxpayer-funded bailouts for losses associated with bird flu, even when their continued irresponsible practices have led to new outbreaks. These bailouts deincentivize producers from taking measures to prevent and control the virus. Instead of using this moment to address how factory farms routinely breed dangerous diseases and reform how turkeys are raised, slaughtered, and processed, both industry and government have chosen business as usual:
It’s a pattern that now repeats every year: bird flu spreads, millions of animals die and are killed, prices rise, corporations get taxpayer-funded bailouts, and the cycle continues. Consumers are paying twice: in high prices at the grocery store and in their taxpayer dollars going to prop up an industry that is profiting from massive, unchecked outbreaks of its own making.
Bird flu isn’t going anywhere. It continues to resurface because the underlying system—industrial-scale poultry farming—remains unchanged. The federal government has not taken the actions needed to prevent the spread of the virus, so it’s now endemic in wild birds, dairy cows, and many other species of mammals. Since April 2024, bird flu has been confirmed in 70 human cases in the U.S., including one death, although this number likely grossly underestimates the true number of infections due to low rates of testing, in part because of mass layoffs and the recent government shutdown. Further, scientists have found that we are only one mutation away from the virus gaining the ability to pass among humans, potentially leading to a deadly human pandemic.
America is lagging behind other countries that have taken decisive action. More than 30 countries have implemented vaccination programs since 2005. France and Mexico alone have administered hundreds of millions of doses in just the past few years. The U.S., however, continues to bow to industry resistance, putting fears of trade disruptions ahead of the ongoing decimation of farmed animals and wildlife, and the public health risks of another catastrophic human pandemic.