As of Monday, November 2, 2026, Washington has three confirmed human H5N1 infections, all in Yakima County residents exposed to infected cattle at dairies, and one of them, a person with underlying health conditions who had been hospitalized with severe illness, died on Sunday, November 1. Thirty-three Yakima County dairy herds and one Benton County herd have tested positive since October 8. Health officials say pasteurized milk is safe, that raw milk should be avoided, and that the risk to the general public is low. Washington still licenses raw milk for retail sale.
Washington went from zero infected dairy herds to thirty-four in three weeks.
Until October 8 of this year, no dairy herd in Washington had ever tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. That day the state confirmed two herds in Yakima County. The Yakima Health District posts the confirmations by date, and the pattern is the one every other dairy state has seen: a trickle, then a jump. The Benton Franklin Health District added a Benton County dairy on October 26. The table is built from the county’s own numbers.
| Date confirmed | Yakima County herds | Running total |
| October 8, 2026 | 2 | 2 |
| October 15 | 1 | 3 |
| October 16 | 5 | 8 |
| October 21 | 1 | 9 |
| October 23 | 17 | 26 |
| October 27 | 3 | 29 |
| October 29 | 4 | 33 |
| Benton County, October 26 | 1 | 34 statewide |
Source: Yakima Health District avian influenza page, updated November 1, 2026; Tri-City Herald, November 2, 2026, for Benton County. Check: 2 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 17 + 3 + 4 = 33 Yakima County herds; 33 + 1 = 34 Washington herds.
Dr. Steven Krager, the health officer for the Tri-Cities, told the Tri-City Herald that the virus kills two to three percent of infected cattle, against about ninety percent of infected chickens. The cows mostly live, the milk keeps flowing, and the virus keeps moving.
Three people are infected and one of them is dead.
The county’s first human case was confirmed in mid-October, one week after the first herds, in a person who was exposed at one of the infected farms, isolated at home and, in the words of the Snohomish County health advisory, “did not experience severe illness or hospitalization.” The second was announced on October 31: a Yakima County resident “currently hospitalized with severe illness” after exposure at a dairy with infected cattle. On November 1 the district reported that this person had died and that a third resident, also exposed to infected cattle at a county dairy, had tested positive without severe illness. The district is not releasing names, ages or genders, is monitoring the close contacts of both recent patients, and says it will update its page every Monday and Thursday at 2:00 p.m.
“Avian influenza can cause severe illness, particularly among people who have underlying health conditions,” the district’s health officer, Dr. Dave Atteberry, said. Governor Bob Ferguson offered his sympathy to the family and said the risk to the public remains low. Here is a third thing that is also true, as far as the public record shows: of the seventy-two human H5 infections the CDC has counted since February 2024, most of them in dairy and poultry workers, this is the first death in a person infected at a dairy. The first American death, in Louisiana in January 2025, followed exposure to a backyard flock and wild birds; the second, a Grays Harbor County resident in November 2025, was also tied to a backyard flock. Dairy infections had, until Sunday, been the mild ones.
The state’s own case table still says one.
As of this morning the Washington Department of Health’s current situation and data page lists one confirmed 2026 human case with dairy exposure, and sixteen cases since 2024. The county doing the work says three, and a death. Nobody at the Department of Health is hiding anything; the page has a cadence, and the outbreak is moving faster than the cadence. That is a reason to change the cadence, so that a family in Yakima reading the state’s page sees the same number the county health officer sees.
Pasteurized milk and dairy products are safe. Raw milk is not.
The Yakima Health District’s guidance is plain: pasteurized milk and dairy products are safe to consume; raw milk and unpasteurized dairy products may contain the virus and should be avoided; and pets should not be given raw milk or other raw dairy. Snohomish County’s October 29 health advisory is blunter: “Do not consume raw or undercooked food, such as unpasteurized (raw) milk or raw cheeses.” It asks clinicians seeing influenza-like illness to “Screen for exposure to raw animal products, including raw milk.” The Washington State Department of Agriculture told the Tri-City Herald that infected cows shed the virus in their milk, which makes raw milk and raw cheese unsafe, and that pasteurization inactivates it. None of this is new science. California showed the country what it means at retail: the state found the virus in Raw Farm’s bottled raw milk in late 2024, pulled the product, and cats that drank raw milk died. FDA then went looking for the virus in raw milk cheese.
Washington licenses raw milk, tests it monthly, and no one has said whether the test looks for the virus.
Washington is one of the states that allows raw milk to be sold at retail. The Department of Health’s raw milk page says the Department of Agriculture licenses raw milk dairies, inspects them, and tests each dairy’s raw milk and cream every month, and it tells consumers to buy only from a licensed dairy while adding that a license does not eliminate the risk. The monthly test exists to catch bacteria. I have found nothing public that says whether, since October 8, the state has tested the raw milk of any licensed dairy for H5N1, whether any licensed raw milk dairy sits in Yakima or Benton County, or whether any licensed dairy has been told to stop selling. Those are the three questions a consumer standing in front of a cooler needs answered, and they are the state’s to answer. I asked FDA in September for a warning label on raw milk cheese, and when the American Academy of Pediatrics said last month that raw milk and raw milk cheese should not be sold at all, I pointed out that I was asking for less than the pediatricians. I am still asking for less: a sentence from the Department of Agriculture, this week and every week the virus is in the herds, about what it is doing with the raw milk it licenses.
Symptoms, who is at risk and when to see a doctor.
People at highest risk are dairy and poultry workers and anyone with close or prolonged contact with infected animals, their milk, bedding or manure. In the United States, most human infections so far have been mild: red, irritated eyes (conjunctivitis), fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, muscle aches and tiredness. Severe illness, including pneumonia and trouble breathing, is less common but has happened, particularly in people with underlying health conditions. Public health monitors exposed people for ten days, because that is the window in which symptoms appear. If you work on a dairy or poultry farm, or have handled sick or dead animals or drunk raw milk, and you develop eye redness, fever or respiratory symptoms, call your health care provider or the Yakima Health District at (509) 480-3770 before you go in, so the clinic can test you for influenza and ask about your exposure. Antiviral treatment works best when it is started early.
Is milk from the grocery store safe to drink in Washington right now?
Yes. Pasteurized milk, cheese, yogurt and other dairy products are safe. Pasteurization inactivates the virus.
Should I stop drinking raw milk or eating raw milk cheese?
Yes. Two Washington health departments and the state agriculture department say raw milk and raw cheese from infected cows can carry the virus. Do not give raw milk to pets, especially cats.
Can I catch bird flu from another person?
Human-to-human transmission has never been documented in the United States, and officials say the risk to the general public is low. The people who need to watch for symptoms are those exposed to infected animals or raw animal products.
About Marler Clark. Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, has represented people sickened by contaminated food, including raw milk, since the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak. If you or a family member became ill after drinking raw milk or eating raw dairy products, the firm offers a free case evaluationat 1-800-884-9840.