The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned state health officials to prepare for a surge of bird flu cases in humans as more cattle herds across the nation test positive.
The CDC alert was given in a Friday meeting with state leaders, telling them to make sure they have “up-to-date operational plans” in case more farm workers test positive for the H5N1 virus, according to the Daily Mail.
A Texas dairy farm employee recently tested positive for the highly pathogenic influenza, making for the second case in humans in the U.S., the CDC also said Friday.
The first positive case was in a Colorado poultry worker in 2022, the health agency reported.
Even though the virus is not currently prevalent in humans, officials are concerned it could become so due to the uptick in cattle that have tested positive.
The majority of cattle with bird flu are located in Texas, but cases have been reported on farms across Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Michigan, and Idaho.
“This is the first time this virus has been found in cows and would be the first instance of cow-to-human spread of bird flu,” the CDC said in its public announcement, noting that there has been “no sign of person-to-person spread of this virus at this time.”
The agency added that this is an “emerging and rapidly evolving situation,” but the overall risk to the general public that this virus poses “remains low.”
The meeting with state officials was led by CDC Deputy Director Nirav Shah and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who was the deputy coordinator of the Biden administration’s National Monkeypox Response Team in 2022.
A CDC press release that the Daily Mail obtained stated that the agency “recommended that state public health officials… ensure that they have up-to-date operational plans to respond to avian influenza at the state level.”
“For example, the CDC emphasized the importance of having plans in place to quickly test and provide treatment to potentially impacted farm workers following positive results among cattle herds,” officials said.
The one Texas individual who has contracted the virus has been experiencing inflammation of the eye as his/her only symptom and is reportedly “recovering well” in quarantine.
He/she is “also being treated with the drug oseltamivir, or Tamiflu, and [is] not thought to have passed the virus on to anyone else,” the outlet added.
Bird flu, also known as the avian flu, has been sweeping through chicken farms as well.
On Wednesday, the largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. temporarily halted production at a Texas plant after detecting the virus in chickens
The Mississippi-based company, Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., also said that cases had been discovered at a facility in Michigan, Breitbart News reported.
Its Tuesday press release stated that an estimated 1.6 million laying hens and 337,000 pullets in its Parmer County, Texas, plant were destroyed after being infected — 3.6 percent of the facility’s total flock.
“The Company continues to work closely with federal, state and local government officials and focused industry groups to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks and effectively manage the response,” the statement, which the Associated Press obtained, said.
The bird flu even contributed to the inflated cost of eggs observed over Easter weekend, with 11.4 million birds being affected by outbreaks through 2023, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
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