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Administrative Controls for Avian Influenza A Viruses in the Workplace

Interim guidance for employers

Key points

  • Administrative controls establish work practices that reduce the duration, frequency, or intensity of exposure to hazards.
  • Monitoring, testing, training, and work practices are all types of administrative controls.

Administrative control measures

Administrative controls are policies and work practices that reduce workers' exposure to hazards. In all exposure settings, employers can implement the following policies and work practices.

Exposure levels in the workplace

Control measures are recommended based on exposure level, which is determined by confirmed or potential animal cases, workplace setting, and work tasks.

Reducing Exposure for Workers to Avian Influenza A Viruses

Monitoring

Monitor and test animals

Watch for sick or dead animals on your farm or workplace, and monitor animals for changes in feed consumption or production metrics.

Test animals for avian influenza A virus if indicated (if relevant, consider joining the USDA HPAI Dairy Herd Status Program or contacting your State Animal Health Official about testing available within your state).

Monitor workers for illness

Develop plans to monitor workers for illness:

  • Have monitoring plans ready to use when needed.
  • Develop a process to communicate with your workers daily to determine if they are sick or have symptoms.
  • Ask about conjunctivitis (pink eye), mild flu-like upper respiratory symptoms, or other symptoms consistent with avian influenza A virus infection.
  • Designate management staff to maintain records for absenteeism, symptomatic workers, and testing. Review the records daily.

Self-monitoring for workers

Ask workers to monitor themselves for symptoms of illness every day while they are working with animals confirmed or potentially infected.

They should continue to self-monitor for 10 days after the last day of exposure. If they become sick while working or during those 10 days:

  • Have them isolate themselves from others and tell their supervisor,
  • Help them contact your state or local health department, and
  • Give them instructions for seeking medical evaluation and treatment, if recommended.
Resources: If you feel sick posters

Encourage the seasonal flu vaccine

    Seasonal flu vaccination is not designed or intended to prevent infection with avian influenza A viruses but can reduce the risk of getting sick with human seasonal influenza viruses.

Testing and treatment

Work with the state or local health department to offer flu testing, post-exposure prophylaxis, and treatment of workers, if recommended, if workers have:

  • Developed symptoms after contact with confirmed or potentially infected animals or their secretions, or
  • Had unprotected exposure to confirmed or potentially infected animals or their secretions.

Support workers to stay home when sick

Provide workers with paid time off and develop flexible leave policies to support workers to stay home if sick.

Training

Train workers on:

  • Relevant equipment, procedures, and hazards (for example, potential for exposure to avian influenza A virus through contact with animals, animal secretions, or contaminated objects)
  • Infection control practices
  • Heat illness prevention
  • Recognizing signs and symptoms of avian influenza A virus infection in themselves and others
  • Any new procedures in the workplace
  • PPE including how to put on, use, and take off (see Training on PPE for more information)

Toolbox talk

CDC created this toolbox talk (also available in Spanish) to help employers lead focused discussions with their workers about H5N1 bird flu and using personal protective equipment to prevent exposures. The National Center for Farmworker Health has a flip chart H5N1 bird flu training for animal production workers.

Work practices

Storage

  • Provide safe storage locations for workers' food and personal items, including clothing worn off-site.
  • Prohibit storage of food and personal items in potentially contaminated areas, including where PPE is put on and removed.

Hygiene

  • Provide workers access to hand washing stations with soap and clean water.

  • Provide alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not immediately available.
  • Place hand washing stations and alcohol-based hand sanitizer in multiple locations to encourage hand hygiene, especially in areas where workers frequently have contact with animals.
  • If possible, choose hand washing stations, hand sanitizer stations, and trash receptacles that are touch-free.
  • Consider other workplace practices to promote personal hygiene like building additional short breaks into staff schedules.
  • Remind workers to wash their hands for 20 seconds before eating, drinking, touching their phones, smoking, vaping, chewing gum, or dipping tobacco.
  • Provide workers access to shower facilities at the end of the work shift and a clean area to put on clean, uncontaminated clothing.
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Content Source:
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD)