CDC issues health alert as bird flu is detected in person who had contact with an infected COW on a dairy farm in Texas – amid fears virus is poised to spillover to people

A person in Texas has tested positive for bird flu, officials have confirmed – amid alarm about the disease spreading to humans.

The patient, who has not been named, worked at a dairy farm in the state and had contact with cows infected with the virus.

The individual is suffering from eye inflammation, their only symptom, and has already been isolated and treated with an antiviral for influenza.

Officials say the risk to the general public from bird flu is still low, although the case has alarmed experts – who fear a worst-case scenario in which the disease spreads to humans and then begins to spread between people.

There are also no concerns at this time about the safety of commercial milk, officials say, because milk is pasteurized — which inactivates viruses and bacteria.

Testing has shown that an unknown number of cows have tested positive for Type A H5N1 bird flu in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. Iowa is currently monitoring the situation as it is also a dairy-producing state. It comes after a goat in Minnesota tested positive last week. Bird flu has also been found in foxes, bobcats, striped skunks, raccoons and coyotes since the 2022 outbreak

They add that milk from sick animals is also diverted and destroyed to ensure it never enters the human supply chain.

The individual was infected with the H5N1 bird flu, which has led to tens of millions of chickens being slaughtered in the US over the past two years.

It has already been observed in mammals including seals – where it has decimated colonies – and farm animals such as goats. This latest human infection is a sign that the virus is getting closer to an outbreak among humans. The species has killed dozens of people worldwide since 2022.

The CDC said today that the risk to the public remained “low,” but they also urged doctors to watch for symptoms.

In a statement, the agency said: ‘People with close or prolonged, unprotected exposure to infected birds or other animals (including livestock), or to environments contaminated by infected birds or other animals, are at greater risk of infection.’

Dr. Bill Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, told DailyMail.com: ‘In rare cases, these avian flu viruses can become established (except in animals) and cause infections.

‘This happens periodically in humans, but human-to-human transmission is rare.

‘The genetic part of the virus that allows it to be easily transmitted from person to person is still missing.’

But experts warn that with each infection the virus can acquire mutations that make it better able to infect and spread between people.

The case comes after swine flu hospitalized a person in Pennsylvania last month — the first case of the year. They were infected with the H1N2 strain.

And after an employee of a poultry farm in Colorado tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu in 2022. He has since recovered, with the only symptom being “fatigue for a few days.”

Dairy workers were already on high alert for bird flu after infections were reported in herds in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma.