Scientists tested ferrets, and the results were not good.

By Timothy Malcolm,Weekend EditorJune 8, 2024

https://www.chron.com/news/article/texas-bird-flu-ferrets-cattle-19504613.php

After testing bird flu found earlier this year in a Texas dairy farm worker, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Friday that the H5N1 strain originating in the Lone Star State and currently spreading across the U.S. poses “a serious potential public health risk and could cause serious illness in people.”

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This comes after CDC researchers tested the worker’s bird flu strain on ferrets, resulting in severe illness and death after direct contact with one another. The CDC said that ferrets have previously gotten sick from flu strains, but this is the first time a flu infection has proven fatal.

Bird flu tore through cattle in the Texas Panhandle starting in February, affecting 13 dairy farms and spreading to at least eight other states. The dairy farm worker, who reported an inflamed eye, is believed to have contracted bird flu through his work with cattle, though scientists couldn’t prove a direct connection between worker and animal as the cattle on his farm were not tested. Cows in nearby ranches, however, tested positive for H5N1.

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The Texas farm worker is believed to be the first human who has ever contracted bird flu through another mammal, and not from an infected bird.

“Given the infected human was a dairy farm worker with reported exposure to sick, presumably infected cows in Texas and without reported exposure to other mammals or birds, we believe the genetic and epidemiologic data are strong evidence of infection of the human following exposure to presumably HPAI A(H5N1) virus-infected cows,” wrote the authors of a report published by the New England Journal of Medicine in May.

Two additional human bird flu infections were found last month in Michigan, both involving dairy farm workers. The Texas worker has since recovered from his illness. Additional cases were reported recently in Australia and in Mexico. The Mexican man who contracted bird flu died, but the World Health Organization reported that his death was the result of chronic diseases and not the virus.

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The CDC said in its report Friday that the risk remains low for humans to contract bird flu, but those exposed to infected animals should take precaution. 

“While the three cases of A(H5N1) in the United States have been mild, it is possible that there will be serious illnesses among people,” read the report.