In the aisles at Sprankle's Neighborhood Market in Saxonburg, a traditional Thanksgiving turkey may be a little bit harder to find.

“There’s definitely a limited supply. I’m not sure there’s going to be a shortage, but it’s definitely very limited,” said Doug Sprankle of Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market. “It's not the usual abundant quantities. People thinking about it for Christmas should probably pick it up now.”

The sparser offerings, he said, are reflective of a larger shortage of turkey across the country, powered by the ongoing bird flu epidemic. However, suppliers and vendors in Butler County aren’t seeing too severe of a decrease in gobblers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since January 2022, more than 50 million poultry birds have been affected by the bird flu epidemic. The disease has been found in 46 states, including Pennsylvania, but the CDC does not list Butler County as an affected region.

Sprankle said customers have begun to ask him whether turkey will be available for the holiday season.

“We have a freezer load, but it doesn’t mean it's going to last through the season,” he said, adding that frozen turkeys are always easier to find than fresh turkeys. “Our store still has Butterball, and we also have Honeysuckle.”

While the less-than-abundant offerings aren’t too festive heading into Thanksgiving and Christmas, Sprankle says his store managers are not worried. He expects Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market may see more customers who are looking for turkey.

“Usually what happens is that people have certain shopping patterns, but when they run out, they’ll go to the store that has it,” he said. “That influx is going to be hard to plan for, but we think we will be alright.”

The ongoing bird flu epidemic has killed millions of birds nationwide, said Jim Bonner, executive director of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.

“If the disease shows up anywhere in a farm, they euthanize all of them because it is highly contagious,” Bonner explained. “This has recently been happening in Lancaster with turkey and some of the eastern parts of the state.”

Migration patterns of wild birds might provide one explanation for why some areas see outbreaks and some don’t.

“Wild birds move from one location to another during migration at times of the year, and potentially if there was an infected bird that landed at a chicken or turkey farm, they have a chance of passing the disease along,” he said. “Migration patterns are a little bit different depending on where you are at, and so far, we haven’t seen any problems with bird flu here in western Pennsylvania.”

Where an infected bird lands may come down to luck, but can also be affected by what side of the mountains bird migration patterns follow.

“The Allegheny Mountain Ridge in the Laurel Highlands, that runs north to south, and a lot of birds go down one side or the other,” he explained. “It may be that on the eastern side of it, closer to Philadelphia and Lancaster, some birds may have been carrying it on that side.”

Bird flu outbreaks can be devastating at farms because of the high numbers of birds together in one place, he added, comparing the phenomenon to the spread of COVID-19 in confined spaces among humans.

“At a turkey or chicken farm, you have a lot of birds concentrated, and that’s why they’re more susceptible than a couple of birds flying at your feeder,” Bonner said.

At Save a Lot in Butler, Nick Zorbas says turkey hasn’t been hard to find.

“I’ve got probably 20 cases of turkeys here right now,” Zorbas said, adding that he has not heard about a turkey shortage from any of his suppliers.

Deli turkey meat has been harder to find at times, though the store has plenty of oven-roasted turkey breast at the immediate moment.

“That’s always been hit or miss since (the pandemic) started,” he said.

At the Lighthouse Foundation food bank, which serves Butler County and northern Allegheny County, food bank director Joe Franciscus hasn’t seen much of a shortage either.

“We have not seen any type of turkey shortage, and we have not seen anything that was not available for us,” he said. “We have a good amount of donations that have been provided for us.”

Jones Turkey Farm in Cabot is aware of the nationwide shortage, but owner Dave Jones says his farm dodged a bullet.

“Out West and out East, that bird flu killed millions of turkeys and chickens,” Jones said. “My turkey farm, the virus didn’t affect us. We don’t have a shortage of turkeys here, but there's a shortage of turkeys at the supermarket every other place.”

Taking extensive precautions to avoid the bird flu may have helped protect his birds, Jones said.

“Everybody who came into my farm had to have a hazmat suit on,” he said. “It’s out there, but it didn't affect me. I took care of my birds and I kept the flu away. We did everything we could.”

Orders for turkeys have been relatively slow for Jones so far, which he attributes to the warm weather of the past several weeks.

“I’ve been doing this for 35 years, and if it’s warm through October and the first of November, you don’t get any orders,” Jones said. “But as soon as it turns to cold, people start thinking about Thanksgiving.”