FDA suspended a program improving bird-flu testing reliability across 40+ labs, citing its own staff cuts
On April 3, 2025, the FDA suspended its Interlaboratory Comparison Exercise for detecting Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, a program improving testing reliability across more than 40 laboratories screening dairy products and pet food for H5N1. The agency's own suspension notice to participating labs attributed the halt to staff cuts in FDA's Human Food Program made earlier that year.
Actors
On April 3, 2025, the FDA suspended its Interlaboratory Comparison Exercise for detecting Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, a program that improved the reliability of testing methods across more than 40 participating laboratories screening dairy products and pet food for H5N1 bird flu. The agency notified the network by email that the exercise was "suspended on Thursday because of cuts to staff at the FDA's Human Food Program that would have supported the scientific and testing needs of the program."
The notice stated the program "would have been critical to ensure confidence in the laboratory methods for food safety and animal health," and the suspension came amid an active, ongoing H5N1 outbreak affecting dairy herds nationally. It followed the February 2025 termination of 89 Human Foods Program staff by the Department of Government Efficiency, the same round of cuts that prompted Deputy Commissioner Jim Jones's resignation.
Why we recorded this
Congress expects FDA to maintain reliable testing capacity for emerging public-health threats, not to lose it to unrelated staffing cuts made outside the legislative process. The FDA suspended a program improving bird-flu testing reliability across more than 40 laboratories, and its own suspension notice attributed the halt directly to staff cuts in FDA's Human Foods Program. This archive records a discrete public-health testing function disabled by executive-ordered staffing reductions during an active H5N1 outbreak, not by any decision Congress made about the program itself.
Sources
- FDA suspends program to improve bird flu testing due to staff cuts — The Poultry Site primary accessed August 10, 2026
- FDA Suspends Program to Improve Bird Flu Testing Due to Staff Cuts — U.S. News & World Report (AP wire) secondary accessed August 10, 2026
See also
- FDA halted FERN's Proficiency Testing Program, cutting pathogen-screening quality checks for 170 labs, citing staff cuts
- VA Chief of Staff Syrek issued internal memo ordering elimination of ~83,000 positions to return to pre-PACT Act staffing levels
- Secretary Rubio cancelled 83% of USAID programs, eliminating 5,200 congressionally-appropriated contracts
- Trump administration halted CISA's election security support to states, ending the agency's congressionally mandated protection of voting systems
- Secretary McMahon eliminated nearly half the Department of Education workforce, cutting ~1,950 positions across all major divisions
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