(Reuters) – The United States Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday that it accidentally fired several agency employees working on the federal government’s response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak, over the weekend, NBC news reported.
“Although several positions supporting [avian flu] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters,” a USDA spokesperson told NBC.
The USDA did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
On Sunday, Reuters reported that the Trump administration terminated 1,165 workers at the National Institutes of Health and media reported some cuts at the Food and Drug Administration as well.
The layoffs began on Friday with almost half of the probationary workers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others at the National Institutes of Health being forced out as President Donald Trump overhauls government agencies.
(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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