Federal health officials say a dairy worker in Nevada has been infected with a new type of bird flu that’s different from the version that has been spreading in U.S. herds since last year.

This version of the virus is circulating broadly in wild birds and is different from the virus that has been causing dairy cow outbreaks since early 2024, the CDC said.

The variant of bird flu that killed a Louisiana resident has now been found in dairy cows. Until now, the human cases of bird flu traced to cattle have been mild, mostly eye infections. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed that a strain previously found only in wild birds has turned up in dairy herds in Nevada ‒ raising concerns that future human infections could be more serious.

Nevada has confirmed its first human case of bird flu in a farm worker who was exposed to infected dairy cattle, the Central Nevada Health District said on Monday, after authorities last week reported a second strain of the virus in cows in the state.