May 22, 2024 – A farm employee from Michigan has tested positive for the bird flu virus, the second such case within the United States because the current outbreak began.
The Michigan Department of Health said Wednesday that the farm employee had regular contact with livestock infected with the H5N1 virus.
The farmworker from Michigan has only mild symptoms and has recovered. The agency has not released the employee's name or his employer.
The CDC says the chance to the overall population is low and that tests of milk and ground meat have found no evidence of live virus.
In April, a Texas dairy farmer was confirmed to be the primary within the U.S. to contract the virus from sick livestock. That employee also had mild symptoms, reportedly conjunctivitis. A 3rd case occurred in Colorado in 2022, but that involved poultry and was not considered part of the present outbreak.
So far, the virus has been confirmed in wild animals comparable to foxes, bears, seals and sea lions, in addition to in domesticated animals comparable to pets comparable to cats and dogs, farmed mink and foxes, and livestock comparable to goats and cows.
In Michigan, “the state has initiated a rapid public health response and we have been closely monitoring the situation since influenza A (H5N1) was identified in poultry and dairy herds in Michigan,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan State's chief medical officer. “Farmworkers who have had contact with affected animals have been asked to report even mild symptoms and testing for the virus has been made available.”
According to the CDC, outbreaks in cattle have occurred in nine states, affecting 51 herds.