Devonyu
The Colorado Department of Public Health announced late Friday that three poultry workers in the state have tested potentially positive for infections with the H5 bird flu virus.
The workers were culling birds in northeast Colorado in response to an avian flu outbreak at a commercial poultry farm.
The infected individuals showed mild symptoms, including pink eye and signs of respiratory disease; none were hospitalized. The department said that preliminary findings have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for further testing.
Despite several infections detected in humans, the CDC said its current assessment indicates a low public health risk from bird flu.
“There are no signs of unexpected increases in flu activity otherwise in Colorado or in other states affected by H5 bird flu outbreaks in cows and poultry,” the CDC said.
Vaccine makers targeting bird flu include GSK (NYSE:GSK), Sanofi (SNY) (OTCPK:SNYNF) (GCVRZ), and CSL (OTCQX:CSLLY).
Amid the ongoing outbreak, the U.S. government recently offered Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) a $176M contract to develop messenger-RNA-based vaccines against flu viruses, including bird flu.
Other vaccine developers targeting mRNA-based shots for bird flu include Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and GSK (GSK)/CureVac (NASDAQ:CVAC).