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4 days ago
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Fungus in "agroterrorism" arrest already widely prevalent in U.S., researcher says
The fungus labeled a "potential agroterrorism weapon" in a recent arrest touted by the Trump administration likely originated in North America and is already widely prevalent around the country, a researcher who studied the fungus for the federal government says. University of Michigan researcher Yunqing Jian and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, were charged with trying to smuggle strains of a fungus called Fusarium graminearum into the United States. Jian worked at the University of Michigan, according to officials, and Liu works at a Chinese university. The two have co-authored research into the fungus. "I can confirm that the FBI arrested a Chinese national within the United States who allegedly smuggled a dangerous biological pathogen into the country," FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday in a post on X. According to charging documents in the case, Liu told customs officers he was trying to continue his research with the strains at the University of Michigan lab that Jian worked in, skirting the rules that require paperwork and safeguards to safely import fungi for studies. F. graminearum is already widely prevalent across the U.S. in native grasses around the country as well as crops, scientists say. It spreads and thrives usually during wet weather, causing a common crop disease called Fusarium head blight or head scab, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. "It's extremely prevalent in North America. It likely arose in North America, so it's not like a foreign agent coming in. And it's already causing a lot of problems in U.S. agriculture," Harold Kistler, an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, told CBS News. Kistler said scientists believe F. graminearum likely originated in North America, because all of its closest relatives have been found on the continent. "Graminearum itself is distributed worldwide, and likely because of the distribution of grain from North America worldwide," he said. Kistler previously worked as a researcher for the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, studying fungi like F. graminearum and the crop disease it causes. While at the agency, he co-authored research with Liu and Jian uncovering new molecular clues to how the disease might be mitigated. "It's a real problem. The problem is because there's no naturally occurring resistance to the disease. And people have been trying for decades to find resistance. It's just a tough nut to crack," Kistler said of the head blight caused by F. graminearum. Farmers in the U.S. rely on a number of methods to mitigate the risk of F. graminearum, including the use of fungicides, though scientists have worried about the possibility of mutations that could make the fungicides less effective. "The fungicides are not cheap. So it's extra cost to farmers. But it's worth it because, without it, their crops could be completely lost. Not only due to yield reduction, but because what grain they may have would be contaminated with these toxins," Kistler said. Billions of dollars were lost to epidemics caused by the fungus in the 1990s, researchers and agriculture officials estimate. The Food and Drug Administration monitors for the toxins that are produced by fungi like F. graminearum, including deoxynivalenol, also called vomitoxin or DON, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea in humans who ingest too much of it. "It is not possible to completely avoid the presence of DON in wheat. DON is sometimes found in wheat grown under normal weather conditions, however, the fungus thrives in cool, wet conditions," the FDA said in a 2010 advisory to states and grain groups. Kistler said U.S. distributors also test grain for the presence of the toxins to prevent there being too much of it in the food supply. "If it's too high, they will reject it. They won't buy it. Or they will reduce the amount that they'll pay for it. If it's just marginal, they can blend it with grain that doesn't have the toxin to get below the limit of what's considered safe," he said. Sneak peek: Where is Jermain Charlo? Baldwin grills McMahon on unallocated funds for students, schools, approved by Congress Hegseth orders Navy to rename USNS Harvey Milk, Jeffries calls it "a complete and total disgrace"
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ram on the lam: A beginning farmer tale
A Dorper ram in the foreground with a Romanov ewe. (Photo by Kreg Leymaster/Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture) It's December 20th. And this story took place when my husband and I lived in town, but wanted to experiment with farming. So, we partnered with Joe and Lonna, a farming couple that lived just outside of Ames, Iowa at Onion Creek Farm. We decided to go all in and raise a handful of sheep together. You know, Joe and Lonna have a history of putting up with crazy young people who want to experiment with different farming ideas. So, we thought, let's do this. And we decided to rent a ram, like we had done a couple winters in the past. We didn't keep a ram year-round to breed our ladies. We just wanted to rent one for a few weeks every December, so we'd end up with lambs the next spring. Joe is the DIY type of dude. He built his house with his own two hands. Joe and Lonna are vegetable farmers by trade, but they were really into the idea of letting livestock graze their veggie fields at certain times of the year to get that fertility, build up the soil, et cetera. It was a great partnership. It had gone smoothly for several years. Well, this year, Joe and I took a livestock trailer, hauled it down to another farmer's place to pick up this ram that we were renting. And, you know, hauling a livestock trailer is a whole feat in itself. And, honestly, the day had gone super smoothly. We were really proud of ourselves. We dropped off some sheep at another farm on the way, and here we are picking up this ram to take back to Joe and Lana's farm. Great, wonderful. It all went super smoothly. By the time we got back, it was almost dark. And we backed the trailer up into the fenced-in pasture. The ladies are there waiting for their fellow. And we're just so, so happy the day has gone really well. We get out of the truck. As we open the back door to the trailer, this ram — whom I'm convinced has springs built into its hoofs — this ram soars over the fence that we have set up, disregarding the females waiting there to be bred. No, it doesn't matter. This ram soars over this fence like a reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh. It's dusk. And luckily, the ram was white because we could see the white speck running into the woods, just getting further and further away from us. So, of course, I take a bucket of grain, but then again, these are grass-fed animals. They've never been trained to pellets or grain of any sort, but I do what I can. I take a bucket of grain into the woods. I try to call this animal. I'm running through the woods at night. There's no way. I cannot find this animal at all, so I decide I'll be back first thing in the morning, crack of dawn. And let's hope that the ram is just standing at the fence line, smells the ladies ready to get back in, or better yet, has already jumped back in with the ladies. That'll probably happen. I'll come back in the morning. After a sleepless night I show up, crack of dawn. There's no ram in the pasture. There is no ram to be seen. This is when we realize, okay, this is going to be a little bit more serious of a situation than your average. Like I said, this is right before Christmas. For the next six days, we are just on edge with trying to track this ram down. We do everything someone does when an animal escapes. You call all the neighbors. You call the animal control of the county we were in and the next county over. We don't know how far this thing's going to get. We check Ames Facebook group incessantly to see if anyone's had a ram sighting. You know, we call our friends. We're going to call the sheriff. We've got to report this animal so we can get this thing back. We spend our days searching through cornfields and forests around the farm, looking for this animal to see if we can find any sort of clues. And then by the time night falls, we decide, all right, we can't really look much more. Let's retire for the night, see what happens tomorrow. Maybe we'll get a call. A couple days before Christmas, we get invited to go over to sing Christmas carols in front of a fireplace at a friend's house. And we thought, you know what, let's get our minds off of this. This will be really nice to just go sing some Christmas songs. So we get there. We're drinking hot cocoa. We're doing the things. We're trying to forget about the circumstance. And we're singing these songs and I realized that there's like multiple Christmas carols that have the lyrics, shepherds watching o'er their flocks. And I am like, okay, this isn't helping and I need to leave. This is not fun for me anymore. So that didn't work out. We also realized family Christmas is canceled. Like we can't get out town now. We have to stay. Can't visit the family because we got this ram on the loose, and we don't even own the ram, right? If we owned it, different story, I wouldn't care as much, but we're borrowing the ram. Okay, so then we get a call. We get a call on December 23rd, a couple days before Christmas, that the ram has been spotted on a golf course north of town. Hallelujah, we drive straight to the golf course. Wonderful. And it's great that this ram's on the golf course. There's still some grass to graze. All the ponds are aerated, so the ram has water to drink. And I'm like, you know, it could live its whole life there, I guess. We're going to figure out how to get it. And so, of course, what do we do? We call our friends. We get people to help us. We go get our mobile netting, like all of our rolls of net fencing. We're just going to fence this ram and get it into the trailer and that'll be it. All right. We start to execute this plan and we realize that this ram has like the largest flight zone of any livestock I've ever worked with in my life. Usually a flight zone should be, oh, let's say, 10 to 20 feet. This thing's like 300 feet. And it is so skittish. And there's no way. There's no way with a wall of human people. Are we going to get this ram? There's no way with putting fencing around this animal. The golfers on the golf course, on the other hand, they all think this is hilarious. They're like, this is a new challenge for us. This is hilarious. We get to golf with the sheep and they're laughing and they're like, oh, are you the owners of the sheep? And you know, I was not feeling the holiday spirit like these people were, but I'm glad it could provide some entertainment. Then this is really when the spiral and the mad madness begins. I call the ISU rodeo Club. Iowa State University Rodeo Club. Of course, they're on Christmas break, okay? No one's there to help lassoing. Then I we have a friend who says, you know what, my dad grew up on a ranch in Colorado. He is a lasso master. He dusted off his old trusty lasso and he came out to the field and we're like, okay, this is it, this is it. He said, 'Let me go by myself. Let me try this.' He's very calm. I am not calm at this moment. So I stay in the parking lot. He walks out with his lasso and he comes back very quickly after and says, 'There's no way I'm getting close enough to lasso this ram. Okay, so that's out. Then I'm making a call to the sheriff, asking the sheriff if he can tranquilize this animal. Sheriff tells me, sorry, ma'am, but if the ram is not deemed a danger to society, we cannot tranquilize within city limits. Okay. So then the tranquilizer gun is that the top of my Christmas list? Didn't expect that, okay? And they're expensive. I'm looking into what I need to do to buy this tranquilizer gun. Okay. So none of that worked. Here we are Christmas Day. We do our thing in the morning. We celebrate Christmas, still don't have this ram. We get through the holiday and then the breakthrough happened, December 26th. We get a call that the ram has now been spotted at the mega church across the street from the golf course. We get the call and so does Joe, the farmer, who lives closer to the church. We're both on our way to the church. Joe, somewhat unfortunately, gets there before us because we had just gone to the airport to pick up a friend who's visiting us. We're getting there as quick as we can. And the janitor at this church day after Christmas is cleaning up. They had a bunch of people there the night before. This is a huge church, so there's these massive windows and massive glass doors. And the janitor hears boom, boom, boom. And he thinks someone's breaking into the church. I got to go see what's going on. But it's like morning time, daylight. He looks out the window and there's a ram ramming its reflection in the window, probably about to bust through this window. Turns out this holy lamb of God had been across the street at the golf course. Full-sized window there. He'd walked through a glass door there, completely shattered it already. And this is the true Christmas miracle. The janitor is also a farmer and somehow he goes outside and manages to hog tie the ram up. This ram is tied with its hoofs with some twine and rope, and it is now ready for pickup. Joe, the farmer, gets there before we do, like I said, and he loads the ram up in the back of his truck and goes back to the farm. Okay. We are driving as fast as we can back from this airport with this friend. It is important to mention who the friend is. The friend is a photographer from LA. Artsy type. He is an Iowa boy, but he doesn't spend much time on farms anymore. So, you know, he's not used to chasing a ram on a farm. We go directly from the airport to the farm as we're speeding and bumping down the gravel road. We start to see Joe standing there next to a fence, and then we see the ram scaling the fence and starting to fly over it, and escape again. And this time he's running off towards the same woods with a rope dangling from the back of his hoof, and that's when my husband just throws the car in park, and runs out sprinting. I've never seen this guy run this fast, sprinting as fast as he can to capture by hand this ram, so he doesn't escape again after he's been on the loose for six days. And then Rob, the photographer, decides to help, what else can he do? He starts sprinting. And okay, luckily, there was a loose piece of old barbed wire and the ram got caught up in it. And at that moment, my husband Omar was able to just manhandle the ram, just lay flat his whole body weight on the animal, and then grab the rope and start tying him up again. And we look back, Rob, the photographer, he's vomiting. He's puking all over the field because he didn't expect this. I'm just standing there like I can't quite see what's happening in the woods with the ram and Omar. I don't know what to do. Anyway, Omar emerges from the woods, carrying a ram who is squirming and trying to get away. I will tell you that the heroes of this story are Omar and the janitor. I have no idea what happened between the pick up at the mega church and the escape back at the farm. That doesn't matter anymore. These details don't matter. What matters is that we obviously realized that we're not going to use this ram for breeding. We're not going to spread those genetics on. Then we put that ram immediately in the back of the truck and we drove it back to its home farm. We returned that ram never to see it again. And I do just want to say that, you know, it's a true Christmas miracle that we got that ram back in one piece. We did not have to sacrifice its life during this process. And I also want to thank Joe and Lonna for allowing us to bring this madness to their farm. And I want to thank all farmers who are willing to put up with a little bit of madness from young beginning farmers. This column is republished from Mary Swanders' Buggy Land, through the Iowa Writers' Collaborative. Editor's note: Please consider subscribing to the collaborative and its member writers to support their work.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Anti-trust enforcement is important to competitors and consumers, but don't forget workers
A recent $180 million wage-fixing settlement among the largest firms in the poultry industry shows another consequence of unchecked monopoly power. Photo by Stephen Ausmus/Agricultural Research Service, USDA. For Minnesota legislators looking for ways to protect workers, an unlikely source has provided an important blueprint. Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson is establishing a Joint Labor Task Force that will prioritize investigating corporate conduct that harms workers. In announcing the task force Ferguson wrote that 'deceptive, unfair, and anticompetitive labor practices are widespread' and identifies a range of harmful practices, including noncompete agreements, wage-fixing agreements and the abuse of consolidated power. While an antitrust agency might not seem the obvious place for labor policy, the unchecked rise of monopoly power is a significant threat to workers. Ferguson's announcement continues the approach of his predecessor, Lina Khan, and other Biden administration regulators. That approach is not new, as the architects of our antitrust laws understood the threat monopolies pose to workers. Sen. John Sherman, author of the Sherman Antitrust Act, said in 1892 that a monopoly 'commands the price of labor without fear of strikes, for in its field it allows no competitors.' That statement rings true today. The average local labor market in the U.S. is considered highly concentrated by federal antitrust guidelines, and one out of every eight labor markets is dominated by a single employer. The result of that, according to a 2022 study by the Treasury Department, is that the average worker earns roughly 20% less than they would if there was more competition. In 2023 Minnesota took a step in addressing that issue by requiring the impacts on health care workers to be considered when evaluating large health care mergers. Legislators could build on that law by requiring labor market analysis as part of merger review across the economy. States across the country have proposed requiring more pre-merger notification and labor market analysis could be made a part of such a proposal. Legislators could also pass the Fair Competition Act, which would make it clear that the abuse of monopsony power — when big players use their power to push down prices from suppliers and labor — is a violation of Minnesota's antitrust law. A recent $180 million wage-fixing settlement among the largest firms in the poultry industry shows another consequence of unchecked monopoly power. Companies not only gain greater power over workers but can also more easily collude with those firms that remain. In an economy that has grown 50% more consolidated since 2005, this behavior is likely to increase. Unfortunately, a 2007 Supreme Court decision has made it more difficult to bring price and wage-fixing cases. Legislators could ease enforcement by amending Minnesota law to shift the burden onto defendants instead of requiring plaintiffs to provide explicit evidence of price-fixing before further facts can be obtained through discovery. Traditional wage-fixing is just the tip of the iceberg. A recent report on surveillance prices and wages demonstrates how detailed data collection to feed algorithms and artificial intelligence will make it even easier for companies to conspire against workers and drive down wages. One approach to this emerging challenge is to prohibit algorithmic price and wage-fixing, which some legislators are seeking to do in the rental industry. The use of third-party analytics companies to fix prices and wages is not confined to housing, however. Legislators could draw on a federal proposal, Senator Amy Klobuchar's Preventing Algorithmic Collusion Act, for a way to prohibit tacit collusion against workers across Minnesota's economy. In addition to the impact on wages and jobs, anticompetitive conduct is transforming the basics of what a worker really is. Consider a proposal to allow Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize. The underlying reason such legislation is necessary is because ridesharing platforms misclassify their workers as independent contractors and then exert control using anticompetitive 'vertical restraints,' which are contracts governing buyer-seller relationships. This business model would have been a clear violation of antitrust laws before a multi-decade effort to weaken enforcement against anticompetitive vertical restraints. Now gig companies and others are able to maintain a system of 'control without responsibility' — firms can tightly manage individuals while avoiding the legal and financial responsibilities of formal employment. Uber controls the routes and rates supposedly independent drivers receive while the 'independent' trucking companies Amazon uses must deliver packages exclusively for Amazon in vehicles branded by Amazon, and using routes, rates and schedules dictated by Amazon. Minnesota took steps to limit vertical restraints by banning non compete clauses and no-poach agreements in 2023. But lawmakers could build off that work by strengthening the state's antitrust laws to more clearly prohibit the use of other anticompetitive and coercive contracts that exploit workers and limit freedom and mobility. For too long the concept of what constitutes labor policy has been narrowly confined to issues like minimum wage rates and right-to-work laws, but our antimonopoly tools are an important part of keeping workers from suffering under the thumb of monopolists. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fired USDA workers were 'boots on the ground' in bird flu battle
DES MOINES, Iowa − Just six weeks from completing her one-year probation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Ames, Iowa, Kim Vore loved her work. But on Feb. 14, in what federal workers are now calling the "Valentine's Day Massacre," Vore joined thousands of her counterparts who were suddenly out of a job. She was the sole remaining visual information specialist in a unit that was supposed to have three people at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, part of a large complex of national USDA offices in Ames that work on issues of animal and plant health. Vore was working with scientists researching bird flu in cattle, helping them present their findings. 'I helped them with the artwork that they submit with their articles. So I was working on graphics work for that," she said. "When they do their scientific work and they print posters, I help them with graphics and printing of the posters. They travel with them, share their work. 'Nothing important, you know, just little things that record the health of our system out there,' she added, tongue-in-cheek. More: Musk's DOGE touted slashing an $8 billion contract. It actually cut $8 million. Attributed to Elon Musk's new Department of Government Efficiency established by the Trump administration, the Friday layoffs − reportedly largely targeting employees like Vore who were still on employment probation − rippled through agencies from the Federal Aviation Administration to the National Institutes of Health. Ames, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, has 900 federal employees, among them the workers at the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS. Also located in Ames are the USDA's National Animal Disease Center and National Veterinary Services Laboratory. Like many federal workers caught in the sudden layoffs, Vore said she does not think her superiors had much advance warning that the job cuts were coming. 'Everybody kind of found out at the same time,' she said, adding that the email notice of her job being eliminated came shortly after 11 p.m. the night before. She said employees had heard about the possibility of probationary employees being laid off. 'But you never think it's gonna be you. No way they'll do this, right?' she said. Now Vore, who is in the process of buying a new house and selling her old house, is faced with two mortgages and no job. Still, she is hopeful that federal funding gets sorted out and she can one day return to a job she loves. More: Are you a fired federal employee? Here are resources to help you get back on your feet. On her last day Friday, she said, she was asked if she would return to the job if the situation would change to allow it. Her response: 'Absolutely.' 'I love the job, love the company (of her fellow employees). The people are just, you know, they work hard and people think it's a waste of money," she said. "These scientists get paid less through federal government than they do in the civilian world and they choose to take that because they care about their work so damn much, and they work hard for no more money. 'So to say you're cutting waste and spending like that just isn't the case with these workers,' Vore said. Also caught up in the job cuts was Ron Gregory. He worked for a USDA plant protection and quarantine office in Wyoming, but said probationary people from his area, including him, were scheduled to go to Iowa and Ohio to provide biosecurity in the battle against bird flu. 'At the request of our leadership, it was an 'all hands on deck', meaning we all had to be ready to go," Gregory said in an email to the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. "A large portion of the people that have been on the front lines of this, doing 21-day stints, all lost their jobs as well.' Gregory, who would have completed his probationary period on March 9, said offices like his inspect fruit, vegetables and animals for diseases so the products can be exported. One of the primary functions of his office was to inspect potatoes grown in Idaho for potato nematodes prior to export. More: Elon Musk isn't actually in charge of DOGE, White House says 'It doesn't appear that there are enough people left at these offices to accomplish the testing. This means that farmers likely won't be able to export their potatoes,' wrote Gregory, a disabled veteran. More than anything, he said, he wants the public to understand the importance of the work being done by those laid off. 'We aren't 'bureaucrats,' as the media portrayed us. I never worked from home a single day, showing up to the office at 6 am and leaving when I was done working," he wrote. "I never got a single dollar of overtime pay, even on days that I worked 12 hours.' The effect of the cuts on the USDA's efforts to monitor and control bird flu are unclear. The disease is a particular threat in Iowa, the nation's largest producer of eggs and also a major producer of turkeys. Millions of birds in infected Iowa flocks have been destroyed to prevent the spread of the disease in the current outbreak, which began in 2022, and the losses have resulted in shortages of and inflated prices for eggs. The Iowa Department of Agriculture on Wednesday reported yet another outbreak, among a turkey flock. Bird flu also has spread to dairy cattle − the focus of the scientists Vore was working with. Other federal scientists have been trying to gauge the potential for its spread among humans, most of whom so far have suffered only mild symptoms when infected. More: USDA rushing to rescind mistaken firings of key bird flu response personnel A spokesperson for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig's office on Tuesday said the layoffs had had no effect on the department's bird flu response. But the USDA acknowledged that, as NBC News reported Tuesday, it was seeking to rehire key workers in the bird flu response that it said it had accidentally laid off. And Politico reported that about a quarter of the employees had been laid off in a USDA office that coordinates the work of labs around the country that keep tabs on bird flu. In Minnesota, Michael Crusan, a state board of animal health spokesperson, said Wednesday that the layoffs have created confusion for state responders during an already 'challenging time.' 'We're responding on multiple disease fronts," Crusan said, citing bird flu in poultry and cows and a Minnesota outbreak of avian metapneumovirus, a respiratory disease among birds. "It's hard enough to maintain consistency and make sure that all the working parts are in order and moving effectively." Not knowing 'where we'll be with some of our federal resources definitely plays into a little bit of uncertainty in our response,' he said. More: Raw pet food pulled after cats die with bird flu. Check these lots before feeding your pet The agency learned last week that federal employees working in Minnesota had been fired, he said, but he's unsure how many. One person's termination was rescinded this week, he said. With an outbreak that began nearly three years ago, every person counts when responding in an emergency, Crusan said, adding that the federal government provides indemnity payments to producers who suffer losses due to an animal disease outbreak. Poultry producers, for example, must destroy their flock to prevent the spread of the highly contagious deadly disease. And the USDA also provides 'boots on the ground.' For example, state and federal veterinarians take samples at farms for testing and conduct other surveillance work. It 'definitely takes all of the resources we have in our state − at the state and federal level − to be able to respond to this disease,' Crusan said, adding that USDA workers in Minnesota are 'some of the most dedicated people that you could ever imagine working with. 'They're out there doing what they can with us on the front line,' he said. The turmoil comes as the Trump administration indicates it may change its approach to controlling the disease. For years, the USDA's policy has been to destroy any flock in which an infection of the highly pathogenic avian influenza is detected. In the case of Iowa, with its vast laying hen facilities, that has in some cases meant wiping out millions of birds at a time. Disinfecting facilities and then rebuilding the flocks takes time, and the result has been the eggs shortages and record prices. Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, Kevin Hassett, President Donald Trump's director of the National Economic Council, said the administration would look at an approach that would focus on "better ways, with biosecurity and medication and so on," to avoid the mass euthanizations of poultry. Hassett didn't specify how biosecurity measures would differ from the high levels of protective measures farmers already have adopted, or whether the medications would include vaccinations for the millions of birds on U.S. poultry farms. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and the state's U.S. senators, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, have urged the USDA to ramp up the approval process for animal vaccines in connection with bird flu. But poultry trade groups have resisted that idea, saying that because vaccines can mask symptoms in infected birds, other countries likely would ban U.S. poultry exports. They point to the cost and of vaccinating so many birds and question the feasibility of such an approach. Ernst, in a news release Wednesday, said she and Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat and fellow Senate Agriculture Committee member, had sent a letter to the USDA signed by them and other members of Congress calling for measures including: A forward-looking strategy for vaccination in affected laying hens and turkeys. "Outreach to partners overseas to protect and maintain international trade." Establishing a strategic initiative "to engage with industry experts and develop methods for prevention and response";" to bird flu. "Ensuring auditors are both in place and qualified to carry out biosecurity assessments." "Revising indemnity rates for laying hens and pullets to accurately compensate impacted producers." (This story was updated to add new information.) Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at kbaskins@ Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fired USDA workers were fighting bird flu epidemic
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bird flu bill is among first to pass Pennsylvania legislature this session
(Photo by Stephen Ausmus/Agricultural Research Service, USDA) Legislation intended to aid the state's response to highly-pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, passed the Senate Wednesday. It was the first bill this session to pass through both chambers of the legislature. The bill, if signed by the governor, will eliminate citizenship requirements for people who want to become licensed poultry technicians in Pennsylvania, though they must be allowed to work in the country legally and undergo training. The goal is to expand the number of certified testers for bird flu. The bill received a bipartisan vote in both chambers, though it was opposed by four Republican senators and 41 Republican representatives. It was sponsored by Berks County Democratic Rep. Johanny Cepida-Freytiz. The bill's proponents say the state needs all the help it can get combating bird flu. Late last month, the state confirmed its first cases of the disease in domestic poultry this year, in Lehigh County. It now heads to Gov. Josh Shapiro's desk for signature. Speaking at this year's farm show, he called the disease one of the top concerns for the state's large agriculture industry. Pa. moves to let non-citizens obtain poultry testing licenses as bird flu quarantine expands Experts say bird flu is, largely, not a risk to the general public, but can have severe economic impacts for farmers, especially those working with chicken flocks. It has also transferred to dairy cattle elsewhere in the country. Store-bought eggs and pasteurized milk are still safe for consumption, according to experts. Anyone who encounters a sick or dead wild bird is asked to report it to the PA Game Commission at 1-833-PGC-WILD (1-833-742-9453). People in contact with sick or dead birds who are not feeling well should contact a physician or the Pennsylvania Department of Health at 877-724-3258. The poultry technician bill was one of the first two to make it through both chambers this session. The other, which also passed Wednesday, will make it easier for international soccer teams' doctors to practice in Pennsylvania. It was sponsored by freshman Sen. Joe Picozzi (R-Philadelphia), who said he introduced it ahead of the FIFA 2025 Club World Cup, which will hold matches in Philadelphia this summer.
