This Texas veterinarian helped crack the mystery of bird flu in cows

It was a Texas veterinarian who collected samples from dairy farms that confirmed the outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in cattle for the first time. Dr. Barb Petersen monitors more than 40,000 cattle on a dozen farms in the Texas Panhandle. She received reports from farmers of dead birds, ailing cats and sick cows in early March. She sent samples to a lab to be tested. On farms with sick animals, Petersen says she saw sick people, too. Some experts wonder if anecdotal reports mean more than one person caught the virus from cows. But without confirmation, no one knows if the sick workers were infected with the bird flu virus or something unrelated.