As egg prices soared in the United States due to the spread of avian influenza, the Donald Trump administration has laid off staff responsible for responding to the outbreak as part of a larger government restructuring, Politico reported on the 16th. According to the report, 25% of the staff at the National Animal Health Laboratory Network Program Office, which operates under the Department of Agriculture, were laid off. This office coordinates the work of 58 laboratories across the country that respond to avian influenza. Despite having only 14 employees, the office plays a vital role in preventing the spread of animal diseases.
The recent layoffs have caused some research institutes within the network to notify their teams that the response to avian influenza testing and other related matters will be delayed. Since the outbreak of avian influenza in the United States in 2022, approximately 148 million egg-laying poultry, including chickens and ducks, have been culled. The result has been a significant increase in egg prices, placing added pressure on the Trump administration’s promise to control inflation, particularly about consumer goods like eggs.
According to the U.S. Labor Department’s consumer price statistics, the average retail price of a 12-pack of Grade A large eggs surged by 15.2% in January, reaching $4.95. This marks a 53% increase from the previous year. In response to the egg price hike, Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), said in an interview with CBS that he and Secretary of Agriculture Brooklyn planned to submit a proposal to President Trump next week to address the ongoing avian influenza issue.
Hassett criticized the previous Joe Biden administration for focusing mainly on culling the affected poultry, whereas the Trump administration advocated for implementing biosecurity measures and using drugs to control the disease. He remarked, “Biden’s plan was to just cull the chickens, and they spent billions of dollars just randomly culling chickens around where they found sick chickens.”
Recently, there has been mounting criticism of the Trump administration for pushing ahead with restructuring government agencies too hastily, which includes reducing the number of federal employees in essential roles such as nuclear weapons supervisors and others crucial to national security.