The U.S. has recorded its first fatal case of H5N1 bird flu, in a person from Louisiana who contracted the virus from infected chickens and wild birds in a backyard flock.

The U.S. has recorded its first human death from bird flu, in a patient hospitalized in Louisiana. The case was considered the country’s first severe human H5N1 infection.

As bird flu wreaks havoc across the United States, with devastating consequences for birds, dairy herds, and even humans, the decision not to vaccinate poultry has increasingly come under scrutiny. While other countries have used vaccines as part of their strategy to control outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus,