Pounds of US turkey inspected in June down 6 percent

The impact of avian influenza on the turkey industry was reflected in the amount of turkeys slaughtered in the United States during the month of June.
According to the USDA’s Poultry Slaughter report, released on July 23, U.S. turkey inspections totaled 570 million pounds in June, down about 6 percent from the U.S. turkey inspections recorded in June 2014.
Despite the decrease in U.S. turkey meat inspections, the preliminary total live weight of all federally inspected poultry during June was up 5 percent – rising from 4.96 billion pounds to 5.18 billion pounds -- when compared to June 2014.
Young chickens inspected totaled 4.53 billion pounds during June, a six percent increase when compared to June 2014. Mature chickens, at 70.3 million pounds, were up 3 percent from the June of the previous  year. Federally inspected ducks totaled 15.9 million pounds in June, a 13 percent uptick from the duck inspections of June 2014.
Also factoring into the year-over-year comparisons for poultry inspections, the USDA’s June reporting period in 2015 consisted of 22 weekdays and four Saturdays, while the June reporting period in 2014 consisted of 21 weekdays and four Saturdays.
Data for poultry slaughter estimates are collected by inspectors of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), for all federally inspected plants.