Exclusive-Trump Health Layoffs Include Staff Overseeing Bird Flu Response, Source Says

The Trump administration has fired staff who were working on the Food and Drug Administration's bird flu response as part of its mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The Tuesday firings, which many employees learned of as they attempted to enter office buildings and were denied access, are part of the administration's effort to shrink the size of the federal government.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has said he will fire 10,000 people across the agency's departments.

Among those fired on Tuesday were leadership and administrative staff at the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, according to the source, who did not know the exact number of fired employees.

The center's Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network tests raw pet food for bird flu. In recent weeks, the FDA has issued several pet food recalls after detecting bird flu contamination.

While staff of the laboratory network were not cut, the axing of leadership and administrative staff will bring its operations to a halt, the source said.

The cuts are also likely to significantly disrupt efforts underway to develop bird flu testing infrastructure for aged artisan raw milk cheese, said Keith Poulsen, a veterinarian and director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory who has been involved in the effort.