Humans aren't the only ones coming down sick ahead of the holiday season.  

"Just like people get the flu, birds get the flu. Some strains are a lot worse than others. In this case, it's really bad. It kills the birds," said David Anderson, an economist at AgriLife. 

Across the country, avian flu outbreaks are taking a toll on the turkey and chicken industry, leaving farmers scrambling as they try to protect their birds. 

"We started off the year as normal at our normal time with 600 birds. They had not even left the rooting barn yet; the bird flu came into the area," said Cathy Cabalo, the owner of Cabalo's Orchard and Gardens. "When we're looking at 600 turkeys, that are bread and butter to the season, we didn't dare let them outside."

As of November 1, 43 states had at least one confirmed infected flock according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture — with Iowa being one of the hardest hit states in recent weeks. Officials estimate that nearly 48 million birds in the U.S. have been affected so far. 

Out of the 585 flocks confirmed to have cases of Avian flu, 333 are backyard flocks – with the CDC advising folks raising their own birds to do so with caution. That means wearing protective equipment like goggles and masks especially when handling sick or dead birds. 

SEE MORE: Bird Flu Spreading Across The Country, Detected In At Least 29 States

The avian flu is not just an American problem, in the U.K, poultry farmers have been ordered to keep birds indoors as the country has recorded its largest spread on record more than 200 cases. In Japan, 40,000 chickens were ordered slaughtered following positive tests. 

As case numbers rise, businesses are struggling to keep up with holiday demand. 

"Between Avian influenza and high feed costs, right there you have the recipe for higher prices. We see right now at the store, whether wholesale or retail prices," said Anderson. 

Greg Schmidt is the manager of Tower Chicken Farm. 

"My supplier lost over 100,000 birds just in the month of August," said Schmidt. 

Add in inflation and shoppers are feeling the pinch in their wallet. According to Auburn University, turkey prices are 25% higher than they were this time last year — with turkey production estimated to decline 6.4% in 2022. The price of a 15 pound turkey is now nearly $21 compared to $15 last year. 

"Right now we're seeing a little bit of a shortage in the bigger sizes," said Scott Podd, co-owner of Ray's Butcher Shop. 

And if you are looking for a big bird for your Thanksgiving table, industry experts warn that the sooner you purchase or order your holiday bird, the better off you'll be adding that last minute shoppers might find themselves out of "cluck." 

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For the first time, U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer "lab-grown" meat to the nation's restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.

The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the U.S. to sell meat that doesn't come from slaughtered animals — what's now being referred to as "cell-cultivated" or "cultured" meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates.

The move launches a new era of meat production aimed at eliminating harm to animals and drastically reducing the environmental impacts of grazing, growing feed for animals and animal waste.

"Instead of all of that land and all of that water that's used to feed all of these animals that are slaughtered, we can do it in a different way," said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and chief executive of Eat Just, which operates Good Meat.

Video below: A study offers a warning related to the production methods of lab-grown meat as it relates to the environment

The companies received approvals for federal inspections required to sell meat and poultry in the U.S. The action came months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deemed that products from both companies are safe to eat. A manufacturing company called Joinn Biologics, which works with Good Meat, was also cleared to make the products.

Cultivated meat is grown in steel tanks, using cells that come from a living animal, a fertilized egg or a special bank of stored cells. In Upside's case, it comes out in large sheets that are then formed into shapes like chicken cutlets and sausages. Good Meat, which already sells cultivated meat in Singapore, the first country to allow it, turns masses of chicken cells into cutlets, nuggets, shredded meat and satays.

But don't look for this novel meat in U.S. grocery stores anytime soon. Cultivated chicken is much more expensive than meat from whole, farmed birds and cannot yet be produced on the scale of traditional meat, said Ricardo San Martin, director of the Alt:Meat Lab at the University of California Berkeley.

The companies plan to serve the new food first in exclusive restaurants: Upside has partnered with a San Francisco restaurant called Bar Crenn, while Good Meat dishes will be served at a Washington, D.C., restaurant run by chef and owner Jose Andrés.

Company officials are quick to note the products are meat, not substitutes like the Impossible Burger or offerings from Beyond Meat, which are made from plant proteins and other ingredients.

Video below: Lab-grown meat could have a worse carbon footprint than animal agriculture, UC Davis study says

Globally, more than 150 companies are focusing on meat from cells, not only chicken but pork, lamb, fish and beef, which scientists say has the biggest impact on the environment.

Upside, based in Berkeley, operates a 70,000-square-foot building in nearby Emeryville. On a recent Tuesday, visitors entered a gleaming commercial kitchen where chef Jess Weaver was sauteeing a cultivated chicken filet in a white wine butter sauce with tomatoes, capers and green onions.

The finished chicken breast product was slightly paler than the grocery store version. Otherwise, it looked, cooked, smelled and tasted like any other pan-fried poultry.

"The most common response we get is, 'Oh, it tastes like chicken,'" said Amy Chen, Upside's chief operating officer.

Good Meat, based in Alameda, operates a 100,000-square-foot plant, where chef Zach Tyndall dished up a smoked chicken salad on a sunny June afternoon. He followed it with a chicken "thigh" served on a bed of potato puree with a mushroom-vegetable demi-glace and tiny purple cauliflower florets. The Good Meat chicken product will come pre-cooked, requiring only heating to use in a range of dishes.

Chen acknowledged that many consumers are skeptical, even squeamish, about the thought of eating chicken grown from cells.

"We call it the 'ick factor,'" she said.

The sentiment was echoed in a recent poll conducted by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Half of U.S. adults said that they are unlikely to try meat grown using cells from animals. When asked to choose from a list of reasons for their reluctance, most who said they'd be unlikely to try it said "It just sounds weird." About half said they don't think it would be safe.

But once people understand how the meat is made, they're more accepting, Chen said. And once they taste it, they're usually sold.

"It is the meat that you've always known and loved," she said.

Cultivated meat begins with cells. Upside experts take cells from live animals, choosing those most likely to taste good and to reproduce quickly and consistently, forming high-quality meat, Chen said. Good Meat products are created from a master cell bank formed from a commercially available chicken cell line.

Once the cell lines are selected, they're combined with a broth-like mixture that includes the amino acids, fatty acids, sugars, salts, vitamins and other elements cells need to grow. Inside the tanks, called cultivators, the cells grow, proliferating quickly.\

Video below: A cultivated meat company recently used mammoth DNA to create a meatball, but it's not available for consumption

At Upside, muscle and connective tissue cells grow together, forming large sheets. After about three weeks, the sheets of poultry cells are removed from the tanks and formed into cutlets, sausages or other foods. Good Meat cells grow into large masses, which are shaped into a range of meat products.

Both firms emphasized that initial production will be limited. The Emeryville facility can produce up to 50,000 pounds of cultivated meat products a year, though the goal is to expand to 400,000 pounds per year, Upside officials said. Good Meat officials wouldn't estimate a production goal.

By comparison, the U.S. produces about 50 billion pounds of chicken per year.

It could take a few years before consumers see the products in more restaurants and seven to 10 years before they hit the wider market, said Sebastian Bohn, who specializes in cell-based foods at CRB, a Missouri firm that designs and builds facilities for pharmaceutical, biotech and food companies.

Cost will be another sticking point. Neither Upside nor Good Meat officials would reveal the price of a single chicken cutlet, saying only that it's been reduced by orders of magnitude since the firms began offering demonstrations. Eventually, the price is expected to mirror high-end organic chicken, which sells for up to $20 per pound.

San Martin said he's concerned that cultivated meat may wind up being an alternative to traditional meat for rich people, but will do little for the environment if it remains a niche product.

"If some high-end or affluent people want to eat this instead of a chicken, it's good," he said. "Will that mean you will feed chicken to poor people? I honestly don't see it."

Tetrick said he shares critics' concerns about the challenges of producing an affordable, novel meat product for the world. But he emphasized that traditional meat production is so damaging to the planet that it requires an alternative — preferably one that doesn't require giving up meat altogether.

"I miss meat," said Tetrick, who grew up in Alabama eating chicken wings and barbecue. "There should be a different way that people can enjoy chicken and beef and pork with their families."

BALTIMORE, Md. — For nature’s flying, feathered friends, bird-friendly gardens, like the one in Patterson Park in Baltimore, can offer comfort and refuge. Lately, though, some wild birds are experiencing anything but that.

“They were showing symptoms, mostly having crusty eyes and neurological symptoms, too,” said David Curson, director of bird conservation for the Audubon Society’s mid-Atlantic chapter. “So, showing lethargy, twitchiness in their bodies, and disorientation.”

In pictures provided by the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center, which has been treating some of the sick birds, the symptoms can be obvious. Most of the ill birds die within days.

“It's a mystery illness,” Curson said. “There are wildlife disease labs around the country working on trying to figure out what the illness is. They have been analyzing corpses of dead birds that have been sent to them.”

Reports of the mystery bird illness first emerged in May in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. However, it appears to be spreading, with wildlife officials now finding similar sick birds in West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida.

“So far, at least 1,000 birds have been affected,” Curson said. “And it's probably quite a few thousand when you consider the large geographic area.”

Scientists have ruled out West Nile virus and avian flu but otherwise remain stumped.

“The most common species that have been affected so far are common grackles, American robins, blue jays, and European starlings,” Curson said. “So, common birds that are likely to come to your feeder.”

That is why experts are now recommending everyone remove their bird feeders.

“Many people worry that the birds are depending on them. And what I would say is that it's midsummer and there was a huge amount of natural food around,” Curson said, “and these birds really don't need your human bird feeders at this time.”

By removing the bird feeders, it could prevent the potential spread to other places of the mystery disease among any birds that might congregate there.

“People who appreciate birds and love birds and like watching birds really need to be convincing the birds to socially distance right now,” said Tony Brusate, president of the Central Kentucky Audubon Society.

In addition to taking down bird feeders, experts also recommend:

• Cleaning bird feeders with a 10% bleach solution, to kill off any potential pathogen
• Don’t handle any dead birds or ones showing symptoms of the illness
• Wear rubber gloves if handling any sick birds
• Keep your pets away from birds showing symptoms
• Report sick birds to state fish and wildlife agencies

“I think the last year has told us that we need to think a lot more about diseases in general than we have been used to doing,” Curson said. “Disease pathogens evolve and mutations can create new versions of them. So, we don't want to be alarmist, but I think it's really important to take a precautionary approach.”

It’s an approach that could help ensure the sound of songbirds doesn’t fade away.

Indiana state officials are recommending people remove bird feeders statewide after reports of sick and dying songbirds, but it’s not just happening in the Hoosier State. Cases have been reported in Kentucky and Ohio, as well.

At this point, the cause of the illness in birds is unknown, but testing is being done to try and find answers.

“Birds are beautiful. People love to feed them, love to watch them,” Indiana’s state ornithologist, Allisyn Gillet, said.

Over the last few months, she said, birdwatchers have noticed something strange.

“Eye crustiness, eye discharge, swollen-ness in the eyes as well as neurological symptoms,” Gillet said.

She said an unknown illness is affecting and, in some cases, killing birds in several states. The symptoms have been most prevalent among blue jay, robin, starling, and northern cardinal species.

“We are looking into it right now,” Gillet said. “It’s been really hard to figure it out. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack without knowing what that needle is. We’re just trying to figure out based off those symptoms what to look for in particular.”

At least 15 counties in Indiana have reported the illness as well as several in Ohio, and Boone and Kenton counties in Northern Kentucky.

“They’re being very thorough,” said Christine Casey, a wildlife veterinarian with the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources, regarding testing being done on samples by local labs.

She said all possibilities are being looked into, including a potential link to cicadas.

“There is a fungus that is associated with the cicadas and there has been some hypothesis that it’s associated with this mortality,” Casey said. “There’s been weirder things that have happened.”

At this point, officials are recommending that people remove bird feeders.

“Because this is an unknown disease issue, we want to make sure it’s not something that’s contagious and being spread through bird feeders,” Carey said. “We’re recommending people take them down and clean them with a 10% bleach solution.”

Officials say if you have to remove a dead bird, make sure to wear gloves and place those gloves and the bird in a sealable plastic bag.

Several birds are getting sick and dying in Kentucky, and at this point, it's unclear why.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources said in a Facebook post that it has received multiple reports of birds with similar symptoms — eye swelling, crusty discharge and neurological signs. They are not sure what is causing the illness.

The sick birds in Kentucky have specifically been reported in Boone and Kenton counties here in Northern Kentucky, as well as Jefferson County.

Those counties are being advised to stop feeding birds/remove bird feeders for the time being.

Wildlife officials are asking everyone across the state to do the following:

• Bird feeders and baths should be cleaned immediately with a 10% bleach solution, then weekly thereafter
• People should avoid handling birds (wear disposable gloves if handling is necessary)
• Keep pets away from sick or dead birds as a standard precaution.

Officials said other states have had similar reports. So far, the type of birds that have been affected are Blue Jays, Common Grackles and European starlings, but other species may be affected as well.

Click here to report a dead or sick bird.