REMBRANDT, Iowa — Rembrandt Enterprises is laying off 135 employees at its egg-laying plant in Buena Vista County.
The plant, home to over 5 million hens, was hit by highly pathogenic avian influenza last month.
Under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, employers are required to report mass layoffs. Rembrandt Enterprises reported its layoffs on April 5 to Iowa Workforce Development, according to the agency’s WARN log.
It’s not known how many people are employed at the egg-laying plant, which is one of the largest in the nation.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has not identified any facility impacted by bird flu, but a county official and area poultry farmers in the region identified Rembrandt as the Buena Vista facility where 5.3 million egg-laying hens were euthanized after the virus was detected on March 17.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was first detected in Iowa more than a month ago and has since been detected at 16 flocks, both commercial and backyard, including four in Buena Vista County. Nearly 13 million birds have been euthanized this year.
Iowa is the top egg-producing state in the nation, and is No. 7 in turkey production.
Avian influenza usually does not infect people, although rare cases in people have been reported, the state agriculture department says. And the disease does not contaminate the food supply, so there is no related danger in eating chicken or turkey during the outbreak, according to experts.
This is just more of the contrived food shortages as they claim millions of chickens are dying from the avian flu. Meanwhile they get paid by the federal government while raising prices and calling it a shortage