The Stearns County detection is the first in a Minnesota dairy herd so far this year. The same 620-cow herd also tested positive last July. The first bird flu detection in Minnesota livestock involved a Benton County dairy herd last June.

A statewide test of dairy milk by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture confirms a strain of bird flu in a dairy herd in Stearns County. Officials say there is no risk to the public milk supply and risk of humans getting the virus remains low.

A new H5N1 bird flu mutation has appeared in a cluster of infected dairy cows. It's a genetic change that scientists say could not only make the virus more lethal, but increase its spread between mammals and possibly humans.