California: Key bird flu lab threatens to strike - only facility in the State able to handle high-risk cases, allege burnout and injuries.

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Media [bolding is mine]

Key bird flu lab threatens to strike as California cases and egg prices climb

​The only facility in the state able to handle high-risk cases could go offline as workers allege burnout and injuries.
February 13, 2025


SACRAMENTO, California — Workers at a key lab for testing animal disease are threatening to go on strike, raising concerns about California’s ability to respond to the growing outbreak of bird flu that has sent the price of eggs soaring nationwide.

Technicians at the California Animal Health and Food Safety Lab at the University of California, Davis, have been sounding the alarm for months, alleging staffing shortages and strains as their union has been in contentious negotiations with the University of California system. The University Professional and Technical Employees are set to finish voting Thursday on whether to strike, arguing their demands haven’t been met systemwide.
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Lab technicians say the workload and stress of the bird flu outbreak are leading to injuries and burnout — especially within the current staff of just three fully trained workers, and two more who can only work on avian flu testing under the supervision of other staff...

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​continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/13/bird-flu-lab-strike-california-egg-prices-00203808

 

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Excerpts from Post #1 above:

...The lab in Davis is classified as a Biosafety Level 3, or BSL-3 lab, the only one in the state working on bird flu. This means its technicians receive special training to handle the highly contagious samples they process....

...The lab in Davis handles the highest-risk cases, when birds might be infected. More routine surveillance testing that’s expected to be negative, or from farms trying to come out of quarantine, goes out of state to New York, Minnesota and Iowa.​..

...The lab has had trouble retaining and recruiting new staff for the highly technical, high-security work, technicians say. The team is considered fully staffed at seven people but has lost three workers since spring 2024. Additional workers have been brought in, but often only temporarily, and it can take between two and six months to fully train new additions, according to technicians in the lab....

...According to the university, the lab processes between 400 and 2,000 samples per week, and the turnaround time depends on how urgently the test results are needed, sometimes within the same day or week....

 

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