Highly Contagious H5N1 Avian Influenza Detected in 15 US States

A highly contagious strain of avian flu is spreading throughout the U.S, and has been found in 15 states so far. 

Wisconsin is the latest state to report finding H5N1, the scientific name for the avian flu. The strain had been discovered in a commercial chicken flock. 

While the rate of spread is alarming, cases of cross-species infection are extraordinarily uncommon.  

"It's a very rare event," Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CBS News. "It requires very close association of the human with the bird."

And while the CDC says there have been no reported human cases of H5N1, it is possible for a person to get it, but it would take a lot of the virus to get "down deep in the human's lungs. They can become sick, but then it's very rare for them to transmit it to anyone else," continued Schaffner. 

In an attempt to slow or halt the spread, commercial poultry flocks have been culled. Nearly seven-million chickens and turkeys have been killed because of influenza so far this year. 

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