The CDC announced on Thursday that a second human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) infection has been identified in the state of Michigan. This is the third human case associated with the ongoing multistate outbreak of HPAI in U.S. dairy cows. None of the three cases are associated with each other.
As with the previous two cases (one in Texas, one in Michigan), the person is a dairy farm worker with exposure to infected cows, making this another instance of probable cow-to-person spread, the CDC said.
There are no secondary cases of infections from these individuals, no sustained human-to-human transmission, and no cases outside of dairy workers.
The CDC reported that there has been no sign of unusual influenza activity in people, including no increase in emergency room visits for influenza and no increase in laboratory detection of human influenza cases.
Based on the information available at this time, this case does not change CDC’s current human health risk assessment for the U.S. general public, as all three sporadic cases of HPAI had direct contact with infected cows. The risk to members of the general public who do not have exposure to infected animals remains low.
The last two commercial broiler flocks to test positive for HPAI were in February 2024: one Nebraska flock of commercial broilers and one Colorado flock of commercial broiler breeders.
CDC’s full press release is available here.
