Rembrandt, IA (KICD)– A local production facility has announced a mass layoff of employees believed to be related to the ongoing spread of bird flu.

Rembrandt Foods announced the move last week that 135 people would be out of a job and it appears to have been immediate.

There have been four confirmed cases of High Path Avian Influenza in Buena Vista County and while state agriculture officials are not publicly identifying affected facilities, but a county official has gone on the record noting more than five million egg-laying hens were killed after the virus was detected last month.