A dairy worker in Nevada was infected with a new type of bird flu that's different from the version that has been spreading in US herds since last year, federal health officials said Monday. The illness was considered mild, the AP reports. The person's main symptom was eye redness and irritation, similar to most bird flu cases associated with dairy cows. The person wasn't hospitalized and has recovered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The newer strain had been seen before in more than a dozen people exposed to poultry, but this is the first time an infection was traced to a cow. The Nevada dairy worker was exposed at a farm in Churchill County, in the west central part of the state, state health officials said.
CDC officials said there is no evidence the virus has spread from this person to any other people. The agency continues to say the virus poses a low risk to the general public. The bird flu currently spreading through animals, and some people, is known to scientists as Type A H5N1 influenza. But there are different strains. A version known as B3.13 was confirmed in March after spreading to cattle in late 2023, scientists said. It has infected 962 cattle herds in 16 states, the vast majority of them in California. The newer version, known as D1.1, was confirmed in Nevada cattle on Jan. 31. It was found in milk collected as part of a monitoring program started in December. That discovery meant distinct forms of the virus spread from wild birds into cattle at least twice.
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