State agriculture officials found what they suspect is a case of avian flu on an Eastern Shore chicken farm, which would be second case in Caroline County and the third in the state this year.

For now, the highly contagious infections are more of a threat to the agriculture industry than human health. Officials from the Maryland Department of Health consider the risk to the public to be low.

The unnamed farm is also under quarantine while the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory works to confirm the case in coming days.

Bird flu isn’t uncommon in wild birds and can be tough to prevent in chickens and cows raised for human consumption. The animals on the unnamed Caroline County farm are being destroyed to prevent further spread, according to the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

The virus spreads easily among birds through nasal and eye secretions and through manure. It can be spread from wild birds or flock to flock and through contact with farm equipment.

Despite the low risk to humans, there have still been 71 human cases — including two fatalities — of avian influenza across the country since 2024, all among poultry and dairy workers or caretakers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In humans, the bird flu virus leads to typical flu-like symptoms of fever, cough and muscle aches. More severe complications can include pneumonia.

Officials have called for stepped-up biosecurity procedures on farms and also backyard flocks to reduce spread. Measures include limiting contact with birds and extra disinfection of trucks, equipment and caretakers’ shoes and clothes.

The Trump administration recently scaled back its efforts to develop a bird flu vaccine from the mRNA technology used for its COVID-19 vaccine, alarming some public health officials.

Gigi Gronvall, an immunologist and senior scholar in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security, called bird flu a “serious issue that is not going away” any time soon.

“We continually see cases in birds, on dairy farms — occasionally in people,” she said.

“There are steps the federal government should be taking to prepare in case the virus acquires the ability to spread, including rescinding their cancellation” of the mRNA vaccine program, Gronvall said. “It’s dangerous to think that just because we had one pandemic recently, we can’t have another.”