Cutting thousands of U.S. Department of Agriculture jobs, as the Trump administration did late last week, leaves questions about the department's ability to carry on its fight against bird flu. The disease is a particular threat in Iowa, the nation's largest producer of eggs and also a major producer of turkeys. Millions of birds in infected Iowa flocks have been destroyed to prevent the spread of the disease in the current outbreak, which began in 2022, and the losses have resulted in shortages of and inflated prices for eggs. A spokesperson for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig's office on Tuesday said the layoffs had no effect on the department's bird flu response. But the USDA acknowledged that, as NBC News reported earlier Tuesday, it was seeking to rehire key workers in the bird flu response that it said it had accidentally laid off. Tap the link in our bio for more on this story. #Iowa #USDA #birdflu