Michigan farmworker diagnosed with bird flu tied to dairy cows

A second human case of bird flu has been reported in a Michigan dairy worker, associated with an outbreak in U.S. dairy cows.

The patient experienced mild eye symptoms and has since recovered, according to U.S. and Michigan health officials. The worker had contact with infected cows, but the risk to the public is considered low.

Although a nasal swab tested negative, an eye swab came back positive for the virus, indicating an eye infection, as stated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The first case occurred in late March in Texas, where a farmworker was diagnosed with this strain of bird flu, marking the first known instance of a person contracting bird flu from a mammal globally. The patient experienced eye inflammation and recovered.

Since 2020, a bird flu virus has been spreading across various animal species in different countries. Earlier this year, cases were found in U.S. livestock, raising concerns about food safety and possible human transmission.

Although human transmission has not occurred, there has been a rise in reported infections in cows. As of Wednesday, the virus has been confirmed in 51 dairy herds across nine states.

Fifteen of the herds were in Michigan, where health officials have not disclosed the number of people tested or monitored for exposure to infected cattle.

The virus has been detected in high levels in the raw milk of infected cows, but pasteurized products sold in stores are considered safe due to heat treatment effectively killing the virus.

This latest case marks the third instance of a person in the U.S. being diagnosed with the Type A H5N1 virus. In 2022, a prison inmate contracted the virus while handling infected birds at a poultry farm in Colorado. The inmate only experienced fatigue and made a full recovery.