Bird Flu Jumps From Cow to Human in The US: Experts Confirm First Case [View all]

It's now official: the highly pathogenic bird flu A(H5N1) that's been spreading across the globe since 2020 has now been passed from a cow to a dairy farmer in the US, the first confirmed cow-to-human transmission of this virus on record.

The good news is the case was caught quickly – and the virus manifested as inflammation in the eye, rather than any type of upper respiratory infection. So the chances of it having been passed on to anyone else, if human-to-human transmission is even yet possible, are lower.

What's more, after nervously watching it spread through poultry and wild animals, we've now got some solid data on how the bird flu presents in humans, which should help experts in assessing the threat to public health – and in identifying more cases if and when they appear.

"It's a huge thing that the virus has jumped from birds to mammals, dairy cows in this case, and then to humans," says environmental toxicologist Steve Presley, the director of the Biological Threat Research Laboratory at Texas Tech University.

https://www.sciencealert.com/bird-flu-jumps-from-cow-to-human-in-the-us-experts-confirm-first-case

Takeaways: The virus has jumped from birds to mammals, but mostly in a sub acute form Cows pass it in unpasteurized milk to the people who milk them, but not in a form that can be passed person to person. There is no reason for alarm or for avoiding chicken, eggs, beef, or pasteurized dairy products. There is a reason to avoid unpasteurized milk, that's how it has been passed from cows to cats and t now to a dairy worker.