ABC News One year ago, the first bird flu infection in a human in the United States was reported in a Texas dairy worker, just weeks after the virus had been found in cattle for the first time ever.
While the virus has spread in birds for decades, in recent years it has started to infect more and more mammals including cows, bears and racoons — and even house cats are getting sick.
In the 12 months since the first human case, at least 70 people have been infected. There was one death linked to a human infected with bird flu in Louisiana. ABC News’ medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton was granted rare access inside the race to stop bird flu at Michigan State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. He aimed to better understand how researchers are trying to curb the spread in animals — and why that may help protect us from an outbreak among humans.