Poultry farmers have said they are under a "mental stress that can't be underestimated" due to the bird flu outbreak.
Compulsory housing orders for all poultry and captive birds are due to come into force in Ireland tomorrow following two confirmed outbreaks of avian influenza on turkey farms in Meath and Carlow.
Fota Wildlife Park in Cork is also closed due to an outbreak of bird flu.
Speaking to RTÉ's This Week, Rebecca Tierney, poultry advisor at Teagasc, said that farmers are facing a "mental stress".
"Going to bed at night, not knowing what they're going to face in the morning - it's hugely worrying," she said.
Approximately 40,000 birds have been destroyed because of the bird flu outbreak this year in Ireland.
The housing order issued by the Department of Agriculture will impact all keepers of poultry whether they are large commercial producers or small hobby farmers.
Similar measures are being put in place in Northern Ireland after two suspected cases at commercial poultry premises in Tyrone and Fermanagh, very close to the border.
Around three-quarters of poultry produced in Ireland comes from the Cavan-Monaghan area.
'We’re aiming for one day, one market’
Billy Gray has 7,000 turkeys on his farm in Feighcullen in county Kildare.
He said that bird flu was a "massive worry".
"If it does get into your farm, it's inevitable what has to happen," he said.
"All I can do is hope and just keep everything right, be vigilant, keep disinfecting and everything else and that's all I can do and keep my sheds locked up."
Mr Gray plans for the Christmas turkey market the previous February.
Around 95% of his turkeys are accounted for already.
Because it is such a seasonal business, a turkey on St Stephen's Day is worth far less money than one on Christmas Eve.
"We're aiming for one day, for one market," Mr Gray said, "you hedge your bets on that, and you just hope everyone is there."
Mr Gray added that he is worried for the customers he supplies.
"They're small businesses.
"There's a long chain impact in someone being taken out. especially someone like us that are dealing with that high-end, small family butcher business," he said.
President of the Irish Craft Butchers Association Jack Molloy said at the moment he is hopeful that the compulsory housing order for poultry will mean there will be sufficient turkeys for the Christmas market.
"I am worried that if it gets any worse, it could cause a huge problem with supply for Christmas," Mr Molloy said, who is a fourth-generation butcher based in Waterford.
"It's the busiest time of the year ... you can nearly always depend on Christmas being the time of harvest for butchers."
Will there be turkeys for Christmas?
Thia Hennessy, professor of agri-food economics at University College Cork said that given the scale of the outbreak so far, it's unlikely that anyone's Christmas dinner will be impacted.
"There's about 1.5 million turkeys produced in Ireland each year and about a million of these are consumed over the Christmas season.
"Most of the time, turkeys that are produced in Ireland are for the Christmas market," she added.
Around one-fifth of turkeys consumed in Ireland are imported from European countries.
"Mostly from Italy, Germany and some from the UK," Prof Hennessy said.
"A lot of the processed turkey that's consumed in Ireland is imported," she added.
An outbreak of bird flu in early November is unusual.
Ms Tierney said the mild weather is encouraging wild migratory birds to come to Ireland.
"We're seeing much milder weather, 11C or 12C late on into the evening, which isn't normal for this time of year," Ms Tierney said.
"We're now in the 2025-26 bird flu high risk time; we didn't see a housing order [last season] until February 2025.
"So, we're into a second housing order for this year.
"Definitely, it's very worrying.
"We have a longer stressful period for our producers to face into," she said.
Prof Hennesey also said that a bird flu outbreak in early November is more worrying.
"Bird flu is an issue every year, what's different this year is that it has hit our flocks much earlier than usual.
"And in advance of that crucial Christmas season."
Ms Tierney said that there is no need to panic yet about getting a turkey for Christmas.
She stressed that good biosecurity and management was crucial in order to contain the impacts of bird flu.
"It's really important that people try to limit their interaction with wild birds.
"If it's not possible to house them indoors, fencing them off into a small area, covering that with some mesh or plastic to avoid any wild birds mingling with your own domestic poultry, and also no feeding of your poultry birds outside."
Will turkey be more expensive this year?
Ireland is not the only country that has seen outbreaks of bird flu already this year. There have also been reports of avian influenza across Europe, the UK and the US.
"The US market is interesting because their peak market is Thanksgiving, which is a month earlier than the Christmas market here," Prof Hennesey said.
"We're already seeing in the US is rising prices for turkey products coming into that peak season."
"The price of food products in general have been climbing over the last number of years," Prof Hennessy said.
"If we look at chicken fillets, which would be a good comparison, throughout the year 2024, they increased by more than 50%.
"The cost of producing meat is increasing, the grain that the birds eat is getting more expensive, energy, the cost of running the houses that they're kept in is becoming more expensive and wages right across the supply chain from farming to processing is increasing."
All of this means, that the price of the Christmas turkey is likely to increase this year, even if there isn't a shortage in birds for sale.
Cork-native Prof Hennessy added: "Spiced beef is also a good complement to your turkey on Christmas Day."
