Health Alert: Avian Influenza H5N1 Strain Jumps From Cow to Human

The first cases of avian influenza, also known as bird flu, were recently found to have been passed from a cow to a human. Now, officials are saying that there will be more cases. A dairy farm worker in Texas was recently found to have been sick with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Johns Hopkins University says the virus has now spread to 16 groups in six states, including Kansas, which is next door to Missouri. Director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture Chris Chinn says that the state’s dairy herd is mostly very healthy, though there are a few cases of sickness.

“We in Missouri have had some cases but we’ve been a lot luckier than a lot of other states that have been hit harder than what we have,” she noted. “We did have a few cases in the early spring of this year, but our poultry business is doing well right now.” Right now we don’t have any open cases.

Chinn says that producers in Missouri also take safety steps, such as putting new animals in a quarantine area for 30 days and getting approval from a vet. Also, she says that all pasteurized foods in the state are safe to eat. On a national level, though, officials think there will be more cases of bird flu in people and cows, but they don’t know how big of a spread they may be facing. There have been no reports of transfer from person to person.