Five farm workers in California have tested positive for %BirdFlu as the disease jumps from animals to humans.
The infected farmworkers labour in California’s Central Valley, which is the often referred to as “America’s bread basket.”
The human infections come as bird flu spreads rapidly across California. The state has become a hot spot for bird flu, with one-third of all the infected dairy herds in America and all of the human cases.
All five human infections in California are among dairy farm workers who experienced mild symptoms of the disease, including eye redness. None of the infected workers have been hospitalized.
Bird flu has now been confirmed in a total of 17 people, all but one of which were dairy and poultry workers.
Bird flu was first detected in dairy cattle on a Texas farm this past March. Since then, the disease has spread rapidly across the entire U.S. and is now concentrated in California.
The H5N1 avian flu virus is not believed to be fatal in human beings, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has nevertheless warned about the potential for the disease to mutate and become a stronger strain.
To date, a total of 96 cattle herds across California have become infected with bird flu, the most of any U.S. state. In all, the virus has been confirmed in 296 herds across 14 states.
Bird flu has passed from chickens and turkeys to cows and now humans. Some healthcare advocates worry that the disease could eventually lead to another global pandemic.
Nearly 101 million birds in domestic U.S. flocks, mostly egg-laying hens and turkeys being raised for meat, have died from bird flu since 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).