Farm workers avoiding bird flu testing because of deportation threat, officials fear

Telegraph

02-04-2025

US dairy workers at risk of catching bird flu are avoiding tests because of worries they will be deported amid Donald Trump's migration crackdown, public health officials believe.
Seventy human cases of H5N1 bird flu have been reported in the United States since April 2024, 41 of them associated with exposure to sick dairy cows, according to the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC).
But as the virus sweeps the country, so have federal crackdowns on farms where undocumented workers often find casual employment, leaving the individuals most vulnerable to the disease fearful to get tested.
'For symptomatic employees, we worry about some of them coming forward because of the current political milieu and fear of whatever their immigration status is,' San Joaquin County Public Health Officer Dr Maggie Park told local news outlet, The Merced Focus.
'We really want to reassure people who work on farms that public health agencies are here to help them. We are not here to check on their immigration status,' Dr Park added.
More than 79 per cent of the milk produced in the US comes from farms that employ migrant workers, including many who are undocumented.
Reports suggest that the threat of immigration raids has struck fear into farm workers, with some immigrants reluctant to engage with government agencies out of fear of harassment, and epidemiologists concerned that cases may be being missed.
'The fear among undocumented workers – especially in the current climate – is real and can significantly impact public health efforts' said Dr Krutika Kuppalli, associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Southwestern.
'If people don't feel safe coming forward for testing or care, we risk missing early signs of spread, especially in high-risk populations like dairy farm workers,' she added.
When the bird flu strain currently circulating among US cattle infects a person, symptoms include eye redness or irritation, a temperature, cough, sore throat, breathing difficulty, headaches, runny or stuffy nose, aches, or diarrhoea.
'In humans it causes really quite minor symptoms,' said David Heymann, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, but he warned that 'might be passed off as conjunctivitis, a viral infection of some type or another flu type virus'.
Although the strain circulating in the US is mild, H5N1 has infected almost 900 people since it first emerged in the late 1990s, all of which have caught the virus directly from animals. Roughly half of those who have caught the virus have died.
El Concilio, a non-profit organisation, provides healthcare support for Hispanic communities in the San Joaquin Valley including bird flu testing and flu vaccinations.
They say they have seen a drop in requests for their services.
'There have been less people coming out, but one of the things that we're trying to do is create a sense of normalcy and let people know that our events are safe and secure,' said Jose Rodriguez, president and CEO of El Concilio.
Since the election, they have also faced harassment, 'it started right after Trump got elected, in terms of harassing calls,' Mr Rodriguez said.
'We had somebody drop off a Trump manifesto to us. We get harassing phone calls. We get harassing messages on Facebook. It's just the climate. There's an anti-immigrant climate and some people are taking it further than they should.'
In February 2025, a CDC study reported that two separate dairy farmers in Michigan may have given bird flu to their pet cats but refused testing.
Neither cat had known direct exposure to the farms and both farm workers had experienced symptoms.
In one case, the worker had reported getting 'splashed in the face and eyes by unpasteurised milk,' a known vector of the disease.
Despite their animals having tested positive for bird flu, neither of the dairy workers agreed to testing, with one saying they feared losing their job for implicating their dairy farm.
As a result, the study's authors couldn't conclude whether they had passed the virus onto their pet cats.
With cases continuing to rise – there are now 995 infected herds across 17 states – experts warn that tracking the transmission of the virus is vital.
'It's important to watch this virus,' said Prof Heymann, 'It's already changed, and it could change in other ways. The virus can mutate either to more virulent or less virulent, more transmissible or less transmissible in humans, so it must be watched.'