A bird flu believed to be responsible for the deaths of millions of birds has been found in a human being for the first time, according to numerous reports.
The man, who worked at a farm in Colorado where poultry had tested positive for the H5N1 flu, tested positive after exposure.
A local epidemiologist, Dr. Rachel Herlihy, said that “the risk of infection is low” in response.
The man is under 40 and was exposed while working on a private farm in Montrose County, Colorado.
He was an inmate at a state correctional facility working as part of a pre-release program, and tested positive after taking a nasal swab.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), later confirmed the positive test.
The man is now self-isolating and being treated with Tamiflu, and has experienced no symptoms other than fatigue, according to a report from EcoWatch.com.
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This particular outbreak is the largest since 2014-2015 according to a report from USA Today, and has been identified in domestic and farmed birds in 29 states along with wild birds in 34 states.
It has also led to the deaths of more than 24 million domestic chickens, turkeys, and other birds that were culled at farms to prevent its spread.
Recently, a protester glued herself to the court during an NBA game to protest the culling of chickens by Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor.
On Thursday, 5.3 million chickens were killed on an Iowa farm called Rembrandt Enterprises using a method called ventilation shutdown plus, during which the barn is cut off from air and heated to temperatures of more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
“They cooked those birds alive,” one of the workers involved said, reported by The Guardian.
According to EcoWatch, the bird flu is an example of how factory farms with tightly packed birds in one space can lead to deadly disease conditions on a large scale.
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