The LA Times recently carried a story concerning troubles at the UC-Davis lab that does testing for the state's efforts to deal with bird flu in cattle. Excerpt:
-The California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory, headquartered on the UC Davis campus, is key to the state’s effort to track and prevent bird flu as it spreads through cattle herds and poultry farms. But the lab has been roiled over the past year by workplace tensions.
-Current and former employees say poor management caused an exodus of workers that left a skeletal crew struggling to keep pace with testing demands, while creating an environment where mistakes are more likely.
...The Davis lab has been roiled over the past year by workplace tensions. Understaffing and poor management, Laxamana and other current and former employees say, have left lab employees overworked and struggling to keep pace with testing demands, while creating an environment where mistakes are more likely... The stakes for the lab are high: It is the only lab in the state with the authority to confirm bird flu cases. Although there is no evidence that the alleged workplace problems have contributed to an outbreak, processing tests quickly gives farmers a jump on quarantining or culling infected animals...
The problems come amid a rising tide of bird flu cases at poultry and dairy farms and an increasing threat to humans. Last week the Davis lab confirmed the virus had been found in a retail sample of raw milk from a Fresno-based dairy, which health officials warn may have been sold in stores in Los Angeles County. And, so far, about 30 people in the state — the vast majority of them dairy workers — are known to have been infected.
Bill Kisliuk, a spokesperson for UC Davis, denied that workplace issues have left the lab ill-equipped to handle bird flu testing. He said the facility has “maintained the supervision, staffing and resources necessary to provide timely and vital health and safety information to those asking us to perform tests throughout the current outbreak of avian flu.”
After The Times inquired about staffing levels and other workplace issues, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services inspected the lab in October, while UC Davis officials hired more staff and got help from a lab in Wisconsin, according to current staff. UC Davis officials declined to confirm the moves...
The virus is taking a rising toll on the state’s dairy and poultry industries. Since September, outbreaks at turkey farms, chicken broilers, egg-laying facilities and other producers around the state have affected more than 6 million birds, according to USDA data. And while the virus is less lethal in cows than birds, dead cows and calves have piled up along roadsides in Tulare County, with farmers and veterinarians reporting mortality rates far higher than expected. Also worrisome for a state that produces 20% of the country’s milk is the steep drop-off in milk production farmers have reported among cows that recover from the flu.
Discontent over staffing, pay and other alleged workplace issues has pervaded the lab over the past two years, emails and other communications reviewed by The Times show...
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