A Second Dairy Worker Has Contracted Bird Flu, C.D.C. Reports

A farmworker in Michigan has been diagnosed with bird flu, state officials announced on Wednesday, making it the second human case associated with the outbreak in cows.

Officials said that the individual became infected with the virus, called H5N1, after exposure to infected livestock. The individual had only mild symptoms and has fully recovered, officials said. They did not provide additional details in order to protect the privacy of the farm and farmworker, they said.

In 2022, a person in Colorado with direct exposure to infected poultry became the first confirmed human case of H5N1 in the United States. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an H5N1 infection in a Texas dairy farm worker.

The detection of this latest case did not suggest that bird flu was widespread in people, officials said, adding that the risk to the general public remained low.

“This virus is being closely monitored, and we have not seen signs of sustained human-to-human transmission at this point,” Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said in a statement.

According to the C.D.C., a nasal swab from the individual had tested negative for the H5N1 virus, but an eye swab sent to the agency tested positive. Like the infected person in Texas, the Michigan patient only reported eye symptoms, the C.D.C. said.