A West Valley farm and one of the largest egg producers in the U.S. confirmed on Friday that it has lost nearly its entire chicken population in Arizona due to bird flu and will be forced to reduce staff.

"I'm here today to tell you that we've lost 95% of the chickens we have in the state," said Glenn Hickman, the Hickman's Family Farms' president and CEO, explaining that staff tried to contain the situation to one farm.

He says hens at one of the farms began showing symptoms two weeks ago. Swabs were sent to the University of Arizona for analysis, and bird flu was detected.

"We shut down all traffic between farms and all personnel; everything we possibly could do to isolate that farm, and it didn't work," Hickman explained. "We've been slowly losing the other three farms plus our replacement pullet flock over the past two weeks."

About six million birds were lost. Hickman says it's the first time in 81 years that the company has been unable to fulfill 100% of customer demands and is working to find alternative suppliers to keep Arizona stores and restaurants stocked.

Hickman also announced a reduction in force. The egg producer has approximately 850 employees, including contract workers and state inmates.

"They all have families and unfortunately, they're going to be impacted by our inability to keep everybody employed as we rebuild our farm," Hickman said.

It's unclear how many employees will be affected. Hickman says it will take nearly two years to completely repopulate the farms.

Animal rights activist group Animal Outlook called the news of a major production slowdown a major win.