Nearly 2.1 million U.S. turkeys have been killed due to bird flu since late August
Published 10:24 am Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Bird flu is the main factor for a decline in turkey meat supply this November and a reason why cooking Thanksgiving dinner could be more expensive.
Roughly 2.1 million turkeys have been killed in the U.S. due to highly pathogenic avian influenza since late August, according to USDA data.
The agency tracked nearly 50 incidents of bird flu at turkey meat and breeder facilities in that time frame, as of Nov. 18.
Cases have been mainly concentrated in the Midwest and Great Plains states, including Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa.
Utah also has experienced incidents of bird flu at turkey farms.
According to a news release from the Animal Welfare Institute, from February 2022 to June 2025, almost 20 million turkeys were killed in the U.S. due to highly pathogenic avian influenza.
That animal rights organization advocates for a vaccination strategy to help reduce the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
West Coast sees more bird flu cases
The Pacific Northwest and California continued to experience a smattering of bird flu cases in commercial and backyard flocks in early November.
The most significant of these was an infection at a poultry farm from Sonoma County, Calif., on Nov. 5 that resulted in the death of 63,400 birds.
In late October, Sonoma County had a commercial table egg layer that lost 231,000 birds to bird flu, as well as a commercial duck breeder that had 57,300 birds killed because of the disease.
California also had a backyard case in El Dorado County on Nov. 10 that impacted 10 birds.
Oregon had two cases in backyard flocks of non-poultry birds in early to mid-November, in Linn and Deschutes counties, that affected 20 birds total, according to USDA data.
Washington had one case in a backyard poultry farm in Snohomish County, and nine birds were killed.
Idaho had no new cases in the month as of Nov. 18.
There have been no new highly pathogenic avian influenza cases in cattle in the U.S. since a dairy herd was infected Oct. 10 in Idaho, according to the USDA.
Since the start of the bird flu outbreak in February 2022, roughly 183.6 million birds in commercial and backyard flocks in the U.S. have been killed.