FEDERAL RESPONSE: On recent conference calls with all 50 state agriculture chiefs and veterinarians, a senior CDC official raised the prospect of sending federal teams to farms to monitor the health of farmworkers and collect other data, Meredith, Marcia and David Lim report this morning. State agriculture officials quickly voiced opposition, citing concerns about biosecurity on farms and reluctance among farmers to allow federal officials onto their property. "Decouple it from an FDA and a CDC issue,” said Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “This is a workforce concern that really ought to be expressed from the USDA and Secretary [Tom] Vilsack." Read their full story here. State POV: Louisiana’s agriculture commissioner Mike Strain, who is also a veterinarian, agreed that the CDC shouldn’t send federal teams to farms. He told MA it’s more productive to have local public health officials on site and then send critical information to the CDC. Strain acknowledged the need to work quickly. He said the high level of outbreak around the country and recent studies showing the virus has been present for more than four months raises worries that it could mutate and “become more likely to move between humans, not just from an animal, from a cow or poultry to humans, but within the human population.” ON THE HILL: Lawmakers and aides first found out about the widespread nature of viral fragments in commercial milk supplies from industry groups rather than federal officials, as we’ve reported. After The Washington Post first reported on the viral fragment detection in commercial milk, FDA’s foods chief Jim Jones briefed some Hill offices, along with USDA’s chief veterinarian Rosemary Sifford and CDC officials, according to five people familiar with the conversations. But the information Jones shared in his initial briefings left something to be desired. “He was just reading the press release, literally,” said one of the people familiar with the briefing. More lawmakers are now pressing for urgency. “It’s unacceptable that, after dealing with COVID and the recent baby formula shortage, our federal agencies have been caught flat-footed in their understanding of and response to the bird flu outbreak,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who sits on the Senate HELP Committee, told MA. Farmworkers at risk: Half of all dairy farmworkers are immigrants and many are undocumented, which makes them wary of contact with the government and less likely to seek out care, Marcia reports. Farms are often in remote, rural areas, far from health care services and other resources. Labor experts said dairy farmworkers have few federal workplace safety regulations, leaving worker protections largely up to individual employers.
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