Brome Lake Ducks is facing massive losses in production, as the duck breeding company deals with avian influenza outbreaks at three facilities in Saint-Claude, Knowlton and Wotton.
According to Brome Lake Ducks General Manager Angela Anderson, the company lost 400,000 duck eggs that were in incubation or just about ready to hatch at its main site in Knowlton. The end result is that there is nothing left in the pipeline in terms of production.
Anderson added that this will also trigger a severe lay off of nearly 95 per cent of Brome Lake Ducks employees within the next four to five weeks. With the sudden halt in production, and a projected slow relaunch phase, she has been forced to make a difficult staffing decision.
“It’s a very heart wrenching situation because we don’t think of our employees as employees, we think of them as family members. They’re moms and dads who have kids and families and its absolutely heart wrenching,” said Anderson, adding most employees live around Knowlton.
In a press release sent out on Wednesday, the company noted that there are more than 300 employees across all of its 13 production sites, and that they continuously raise more than 350,000 ducks. It is believed that it will take about 10 to 12 months to resume operations.
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