A gigantic farm is laying off around 400 employees amid a worrying spread of bird flu.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that “H5N1 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows.”
The risk to the public is “low,” with one case in a US dairy worker recently, but the CDC is “watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures.
Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch, in Michigan, said that some of the layoffs are temporary to begin with, but others are permanent.
"The company plans to rehire many positions as hen replenishing and egg production increases," chief human resources officer Stephanie Kempa said in a letter to the Department of Labour and Economic Opportunity. Kempa added the layoff was “massive.”
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Herbruck's said many of the layoffs would be temporary (FOX 17)Clerks, managers, supervisors and accountants are among some of the positions to have been laid off across five locations.
In a statement issued to WZZM13, Herbruck’s said the layoffs were “in the face of ongoing efforts to address the detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza alongside state and federal regulator.”
Over 90 million birds have been killed by the virus since January 2022.
The company added: “Herbruck's has reached the difficult decision to conduct layoffs at the affected facilities where work is not available…
Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch, in Michigan, had to lay off hundreds of staff (Wood TV8)"We understand this is a stressful situation for our team members, and we are working with our state partners to provide them with resources, answer questions and assist in their individual family situations."
Michigan has ordered poultry operations and dairy farms to install a designated biosecurity manager along with a line of separation “with a distinguishable perimeter,” extra cleaning practices and a log book.
Also this year, reports emerged of an outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows.
But consumers seem to be undeterred. Sales of raw milk appear to be on the rise, despite years of warnings about the health risks of drinking the unpasteurised products.
The farms chicken population has been hit hard (FOX 17)That runs counter to advice from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls raw milk one of the “riskiest” foods people can consume.
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“Raw milk can be contaminated with harmful germs that can make you very sick,” the CDC says on its website.
As of Monday, at least 42 herds in nine states are known to have cows infected with the virus known as type A H5N1, federal officials said.
The virus has been found in high levels in the raw milk of infected cows. Viral remnants have been found in samples of milk sold in grocery stores, but the FDA said those products are safe to consume because pasteurization has been confirmed to kill the virus.
Inside the massive chicken farm (FOX 17)It’s not yet known whether live virus can be transmitted to people who consume milk that hasn't been heat-treated.
But CDC officials warned last week that people who drink raw milk could theoretically become infected if the bird flu virus comes in contact with receptors in the nose, mouth and throat or by inhaling virus into the lungs. There's also concern that if more people are exposed to the virus, it could mutate to spread more easily in people.
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