(BARRON COUNTY, WI) — The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has detected the first presumptive positive human case of H5N1 infection. The human case follows an infected flock of commercial poultry identified in Barron County, Wisconsin, where this person was exposed to the infected flock.
The case was identified through testing at the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene and is pending confirmation at the CDC. Wisconsin health officials are monitoring farm workers who may have been exposed to the virus and have provided them with information to protect their health. The risk to the general public in Wisconsin remains low.
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture has also reported another case of the H5N1 virus in a backyard poultry flock in Kenosha County near the Wisconsin-Illinois Border. This was just after the reported infection in the Barron County flock in far Northwest Wisconsin. State Veterinarian Dr. Darlene Konkle says the two virus outbreaks are likely not related to this fall’s giveaway of over 150,000 chickens to the general public from poultry farmers in Western Wisconsin that Pure Prairie Poultry abandoned.
People who work directly with infected birds or animals are at higher risk. The H5N1 virus has continued to circulate in wild and domestic birds in North America since December 2021. The virus is highly contagious and often fatal to domestic poultry. The disease varies in severity depending on the strain and the species infected.
The CDC has reported the first severe case of bird flu in a human in Louisiana this week while California has declared a state of emergency due to the continued bird flu outbreak in dairy, poultry and some humans.
Affiliate Brian Winnekins at WRDN-Durand, WI contributed to this story
