The move comes as Michigan confirmed the H5N1 virus impacted another herd in the state.Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued an emergency disaster declaration in his state over an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu in northeastern Weld County as officials recently reported that 1.8 million chickens were impacted by the virus.
The governor “verbally” declared a disaster after “an avian flu outbreak in a commercial poultry facility in Weld County,” according to a news release from his office issued on Monday. Mr. Polis’s office did not name the facility that was impacted by the outbreak.
The declaration means that Colorado can use its emergency powers to “take all necessary and appropriate state actions to assist with response, recovery, and mitigation efforts.”
“He has recovered. This case is an employee at a dairy farm in northeast Colorado who had direct exposure to dairy cattle infected with avian flu. To protect patient privacy, additional details are not being provided,” the agency said last week in a news release.
It’s not clear if the infected farm worker had any connection to the infected chickens in Weld County. Officials in the state said that the bird flu risk to Colorado residents remains low, noting that the virus is spreading among animals.
The virus is “not adapted to spread from person to person,” Rachel Herlihy, state epidemiologist, said in a news release. “Right now, the most important thing to know is that people who have regular exposure to infected animals are at increased risk of infection and should take precautions when they have contact with sick animals.”
They advised people not to touch sick or dead animals. If necessary, people should wear protective gear such as eye protection, gloves, and an N95 respirator mask.
The H5N1 virus associated with the cases also impacted about two dozen commercial dairy herds in Colorado over the past month or so, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Colorado had no avian influenza cases throughout 2023, but in 2022, eight commercial poultry flocks were impacted by the virus, according to federal data.
In 2022, a human H5N1 case in Colorado was detected by someone who was exposed to infected birds, officials say.
Michigan Confirms More Cases
On Tuesday, meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed that avian influenza in another dairy herd in Gratiot County, located in the center part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. So far, 26 herds have been affected, officials said.
Tests conducted at the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory detected the case and will send the samples to the USDA for confirmation, according to the agency.
The state agency recommended that farms not share equipment with other farms so as to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus, among other steps being taken.
Their study “found that the most commonly used pasteurization time and temperature requirements were effective at inactivating” the virus, it added. “In each of the total of nine repeated experiments, the virus was completely inactivated,” the agency said.
