COLUMBUS — The Ohio Department of Health has reported the state’s first probable human case of influenza A(H5), also known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), or bird flu.

An adult male Mercer County farm worker who was in contact with deceased commercial poultry was infected with the virus.

Mercer County is four hours away from Lawrence County in western Ohio and shares a border with Indiana.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers the current risk of bird flu for the general public to be low. However, people with close and prolonged, unprotected contact with infected birds are at greater risk.

Nationally, there have been 68 confirmed human cases of HPAI in 11 states since the beginning of 2024, which included one death in Louisiana. All but three of these cases involved exposures related to commercial agriculture and related operations or wild birds. In Ohio, one dairy herd and numerous poultry flocks have been infected since the outbreak began in 2022.

There are no known cases of human-to-human transmission.

“While the risk to Ohioans is low, the best way to prevent bird flu is to avoid unprotected exposures to sick or dead birds or to their environment,” said ODH Director Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, MBA. “People should avoid direct contact with poultry or wild birds and take proper precautions, including reaching out for guidance regarding personal protection and safe handling, if you must be around sick or dead birds.”

Additional Information

It is safe to eat properly cooked poultry and pasteurized dairy products. Generally, people should follow food safety practices – poultry, eggs, and beef should be cooked to a safe internal temperature to kill bacteria and viruses. The CDC’s safer foods table contains a complete list of safe internal temperatures.

If people have been exposed to a sick or dead bird, they should monitor themselves for any new respiratory symptoms and contact their healthcare provider or local health department should they develop symptoms. Ohioans can report sick or dead wild birds to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) at 1-800-WILDLIFE and sick or dead poultry to the ODA at 614-728-6220.

More information on HPAI can be found on both the ODH and ODA websites.