Bird Flu Workplace Safety and Health

This information was last updated on June 27, 2025

Avian influenza, more commonly known as bird flu, is an illness that primarily infects birds but can potentially infect people. The latest strain influenza A (H5N1) is widespread in wild birds worldwide, has infected other animal species, and has caused illness in U.S. poultry and dairy cows with cases appearing in U.S. poultry and dairy workers.

Workers who have job-related contact with birds or dairy cows infected with the bird flu virus are at risk of becoming infected with bird flu. This includes workers at bird rehabilitation centers, employees of bird and animal sanctuaries, poultry farm or dairy farm workers, slaughterhouse workers, laboratories that test samples for the virus, and responders to detections of bird flu in poultry and dairy operations.

Bird flu is considered a recognized workplace hazard. Employers must protect workers against the virus and other hazards at work. They must take steps to keep everyone safe by providing appropriate worker protection measures and personal protective equipment. Read on for more tips on how to protect yourself and others at work.

Overview

Since 2022, bird flu has been spreading among wild birds and poultry operations in the United States. In 2024, the virus was identified in dairy cattle. Outbreaks have continued to happen in the poultry industry and dairy herds across the US.

Workers have also gotten sick from bird flu in both dairy and poultry operations. To date, one person has died in the United States. Most cases in people happened when they were near sick animals or their secretions like milk or bird droppings. Although the risk to the general population is low, workers who are around these animals can be at serious risk.

Read on for more details on how employers can keep workers safe from bird flu.

Requirements & Policies

Hazard assessment

All employers must identify hazards or potential hazards at their workplace. They must also identity and implement worker protective measures to reduce exposures. They must select and provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) necessary to protect employees from exposure to the bird flu virus. Employers must also perform a respiratory exposure evaluation if workers have airborne exposure to bird flu. Employers must follow all other DOSH requirements to ensure their workplaces are safe and free of recognized hazards, including bird flu.

Engineering and administrative controls

Employers with confirmed or suspected exposures to bird flu in the workplace must take all feasible steps necessary to create a safe and healthy workplace. Employers must evaluate and use engineering and administrative controls injunction with personal protective equipment (PPE). Examples of engineering and administrative controls include:

  • Use a ventilation system that provides a constant supply of fresh air with no recirculation of the air;
  • Locating fans and ventilation exhaust so they do not discharge high velocity air into areas with bird flu contaminated materials or into a work area to avoid stirring up contaminated material and putting it into the air;
  • Regularly cleaning and maintaining the ventilation systems;
  • Train your workers;
  • Follow health department instructions for quarantine or isolation of exposed or sick workers.

See DOSH Directive 12.00 for additional information and exposure controls for bird flu. Or request a free DOSH safety consultation.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) requirements

Respiratory Protection

Employers with confirmed or potential exposures to bird flu in the workplace that are higher risk must take all feasible steps necessary to create a safe and healthy workplace.

DOSH Directive 12.00 (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) provides direction to DOSH compliance staff regarding higher risk exposures. It includes use of NIOSH-approved respirators, training and implementing a complete respiratory protection program. In many cases, a fitted N95 respirator will provide adequate protection. In some cases, workers will need additional protection provided by an elastomeric full-face respirator or even a powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR).

Before using respirators, employers must have and follow a written Respiratory Protection Program including requirements for selection, medical evaluations, fit-testing, training, maintenance and storage of respirators.

For more information see:

Additional required Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

In addition to respirators, DOSH requires employers to have their workers wear all of the following PPE when exposed to bird flu:

  • Fluid-resistant coveralls;
  • Splash goggles (unless equivalent or better eye protection is provided by respirator like a Full-face piece respirator);
  • Head cover or hair cover;
  • Gloves appropriate to the hazard and work task;
  • Boot covers or boots, such as one-piece pull-on waterproof boots that can be cleaned and disinfected.

Employers that elect to use a different combination of PPE at their workplaces must base it on their PPE hazard assessments and must ensure their PPE selections meet DOSH rules requirements. For example: Mucous membranes are a point of entry for transmission of bird flu, and therefore employers must ensure that workers’ wear appropriate eye protection through the use of splash goggles, or an appropriately designed respirator.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Training

Employers must also provide PPE training for workers to ensure they know:

  • When and how to use PPE;
  • How to properly put on, and remove PPE in a separate clean area;
  • How to properly discard disposable PPE;
  • How to maintain and disinfect re-usable PPE, like elastomeric respirators; and
  • The limitations of PPE.

Other L&I Rules

Enforcement policies

Standards and Guidance from others

Get help with meeting requirements

L&I’s Consultation Program offers free, confidential, professional advice to help employers meet these safety and health requirements.

Reporting & Recording

Employers must report and record workplace related bird flu according to Chapter 296-27 WAC – Recordkeeping and Reporting. Bird flu does not fall under the exclusion for “common cold and flu” in WAC 296-27-01103 (2)(h). See L&I’s Workplace Injuries & Fatalities web page for more information.

Other reporting

  • Cases, suspected cases, or exposure in people report to the local health jurisdiction.
  • Sick or dead domestic birds report to the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Avian Health program: 1-800-606-3056.
  • Increased death or disease in livestock on farms to the State Veterinarian on the Reportable Animal Disease Database and select “unexplained increase in dead or diseased animals.”
Training & Resources

Meeting Workplace Safety & Health Requirements

Employers may use these materials to meet specific requirements in L&I Safety & Health rules. Employers can use other materials as well.

Note: Guidelines from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do not relieve employers of their obligations to meet the requirements of L&I rules.

Training & Resources

Publications, Handouts, Checklists

Sample Programs

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