FDA bird flu testing efforts disrupted by RFK Jr.’s layoffs, officials say

Some of the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to support testing for the ongoing bird flu outbreak have been disrupted due to steep layoffs at the agency, multiple officials told CBS News Thursday, in the latest fallout from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s cuts to the nation’s federal health agencies.

In one example, a planned FDA exercise with a network of veterinary testing labs around the country to ensure they are able to detect the virus in milk has been suspended, due to the elimination of the agency’s food safety lab in Illinois, two federal health officials said.

Officials had planned the exercise for 40 laboratories across the FDA-backed Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network, as well as additional government-backed and private labs, which are using different methods to test for the virus.

“Unfortunately, significant Reductions In Force (RIF), including a key quality assurance officer, at FDA’s Human Food Program Moffett Center has caused immediate and significant impact on the Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network,” read an email sent Thursday to members of the laboratory network, obtained by CBS News.

News of the disruption to the FDA exercise was first reported by Reuters.

The effort “would have been critical to ensure confidence in the laboratory methods for food safety and animal health,” the email read. 

Labs are testing milk both to detect the virus in sick cattle as well as for food safety purposes, an official said. 

The department has laid off some 10,000 workers under a plan drawn up by Kennedy and the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting task force. The FDA lost around 3,500 full-time employees due to the layoffs, including staff supporting the agency’s food and drug safety inspectors.

“This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again. Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year, and we must shift course,” an HHS official said in a statement.

The official said that HHS layoffs “focused personnel cuts on redundant or unnecessary administrative positions.”

“HHS also reduced its regional footprint by moving out of the highest cost cities, shuttering offices in Boston, Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, and Seattle,” the statement said.

Other federal labs have been gutted due to Kennedy’s cuts, including U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention labs investigating STD and hepatitis outbreaks.

Another disrupted bird flu effort was at the FDA’s San Francisco-area food safety testing lab, two officials said. 

That lab is responsible for food safety testing for both humans and animals, officials said. One official said the lab had been setting up to begin testing pet food for bird flu, as part of the agency’s regulatory response to outbreaks. 

Now the lab has been closed, with staff also completely eliminated as part of Kennedy’s cuts on Tuesday. It is unclear whether the agency’s remaining labs will be able to fill the gap.

Several multistate recalls of pet food for bird flu contamination have been announced by health authorities in recent months, after cats and other animals were sickened. The virus has been especially lethal to pet cats.

In the final days of the Biden administration, the FDA’s veterinary center called on pet food manufacturers to take additional steps to ensure their products were free of the virus.

Through the center, the FDA has oversight over the safety of drugs and food given to animals, including pets.