Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cow

The infected worker's primary symptom was eye inflammation

(Image credit: Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

published 2 April 2024

What happened

A dairy worker in the Texas Panhandle developed a mild case of H5N1 avian influenza after working with infected cows, Texas health officials said Monday. The patient is only the second person known to have contracted this strain of bird flu in the U.S. and the first anywhere infected through mammals, The Associated Press said.

The Texas patient exhibited only eye inflammation, but the case "has alarmed disease trackers monitoring for the worst-case scenario: human-to-human transmission," The Washington Post said. Bird flu has been spreading through wild animals and, since March 25, dairy herds in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico, so the jump to humans "really wasn't a question of if but when," UTHealth Houston's Dr. Luis Ostrosky said to the Houston Chronicle.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.