DUXBURY — Customers start lining up outside Bongi's Turkey Roost at 6 a.m. on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, though doors don't open till 9. This area off Route 53 was once a dirt road of seven farms, known as "Turkey Row." Owner Tom Pierce, who doesn't take orders, says it's part of the fanfare. "People want to be in line."
A few months ago, worried customers who heard reports of an avian flu decimating turkey flocks asked Pierce if he would have birds. The good news, he says, which is echoed by turkey specialists: There will be no shortage of turkeys this holiday. "I'll have enough," says Pierce.
The flu, detected last December, afflicts turkeys and chickens. Known as "highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)," it is spread through migrating wild birds, and began in the Pacific Northwest before striking hard in the Midwest, including Minnesota, the country's largest turkey producer. "The strain is so pathogenic that birds are dropping dead with virtually no warning symptoms," says Michael Cahill, director of animal health for the state Department of Agricultural Resources. There have been no outbreaks in the country reported since June, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The strain is not harmful to humans.
"We haven't seen the virus in New England yet but that doesn't mean it won't happen, or that it can't," says Jennifer Hashley of Tufts University's New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. "All of us [are] on alert to test, quarantine, and kill birds if they become infected. But we don't want to scare consumers. Nothing in the stores will harm consumers and cooking will kill any bacteria." Hashley and her husband, Peter Lowy, grow pasture-raised turkeys on their Sudbury farm, Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds and Farmyard.
Last year, the nation bought 228 million turkeys. This year, according to the USDA's website, the flu felled 7.5 million turkeys. That number represents about 3 percent of the population, says Kimmon Williams of the National Turkey Federation in Washington. (The flu also felled 42 million egg-laying and young female chickens, the USDA reports, adding that egg prices are up 36 percent.)
The USDA says consumers can expect to pay an average of 6 percent more this year for turkey, but most birds were processed and flash frozen in March, before the flu hit in force, writes Williams in an e-mail. Many retailers secured their supply early, she adds, locking down low prices to attract shoppers. Stop & Shop is selling 10- to 20-pound frozen Butterballs for 99 cents a pound (with a $25 purchase). Wegmans is selling 18-pound and up frozen Butterballs for $1.39 a pound with a Wegmans shoppers card; $1.79 without. Plainville free-range fresh turkeys at Whole Foods Markets are $2.99 per pound.
Bongi's, founded by Pierce's grandparents, no longer raises its own turkeys; they come from New York and Pennsylvania farms and cost $3.59 a pound for fresh, $3.49 for frozen. Pete & Jen's birds were processed and frozen in October and cost $6.75 a pound.
The impact of avian flu is being felt more acutely by those who sell turkey sandwiches, pies, and ground meat that typically comes from a big male "tom" turkey, not the female hens that average 15 to 20 pounds. "Most of the barns hit by avian influenza were those of male tom turkeys," says Williams. They're being raised again from newborns.
Bongi's uses tom meat for pies and sandwiches year-round and Pierce has had to reach beyond his regular supplier to secure it. His cost for breast meat, which is cooked in-house, has risen 30 cents a pound, but he refuses to raise prices. "We've been serving a lot of the same people for 50-plus years," he says. "Besides, the price will come down again."
The state, meanwhile, is working with 5,000 registered backyard poultry hobbyists to prevent a local flu outbreak, offering tips such as limiting the number of people who have contact with the birds and wearing dedicated clothing and shoes in the backyard. The ideal protection for poultry, says Cahill, are covered mesh enclosures that thwart roaming coyotes.
"Who would have thought protecting your birds from coyotes could save them from the flu?" he says.
BONGI'S TURKEY ROOST 414 Kingston Way, Duxbury. 781-585-2392, www.bongis.com
Pete & Jen’s Backyard Birds and Farmyard 101 North Road, Sudbury. 978-318-0063, www.peteandjensbackyardbirds.com
Peggy Hernandez can be reached at mphernan1@gmail.com.