Ever since March of 2020, it's easy to feel suspicious of every cough and sniffle.

COVID has left lots of people with anxiety worrying that the next virus could be worse.

So news this week raised red flags that a strain of bird flu

spread to cattle and has now been detected in a human.

Anytime there's a human case, it's of course concerning.

Louise Moncla is a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

The infected person in Texas came in direct contact with a sick dairy cow.

It's still unclear how far it may have spread across dairy cattle in the country, but cases have been reported in Texas, Michigan, Kansas, New Mexico, and Idaho.

I'd be very surprised that this was not being spread from cow to cow the way it's acting the way people

are telling me it gets on their farm and moves but the big thing to note is we're not

seeing mortalities with this at all that's Joe Armstrong a veterinarian at the

University of Minnesota who's been tracking

this bird flu outbreak in dairy cows. This is the first time H5N1 has been found in dairy cattle

according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

We haven't seen this bird to mammal spread in agricultural setting.

Should we have expected it?

Possibly.

Joanna Harvey is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland.

The virus wiped out massive poultry populations in 2022,

and this year, Cal Main foods, the largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S, has

temporarily shut down after detecting the virus in their flock and depopulating roughly 1.6 million birds.

Harvey says with cattle, and now at least one human being infected,

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