Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a weeklong shutdown of all live poultry markets in New York City, Westchester County and on Long Island in an effort to thwart transmission of bird flu.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the state is temporarily shutting down all live bird markets in New York City and Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk Counties through February 14 after inspectors discovered seven cases of bird flu in poultry.

The order affects roughly 80 markets in New York City and in several nearby counties. Gov. Kathy Hochul described it as a “proactive” step to help curb the spread of bird flu.

The variant of bird flu that killed a Louisiana resident has now been found in dairy cows. Until now, the human cases of bird flu traced to cattle have been mild, mostly eye infections. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed that a strain previously found only in wild birds has turned up in dairy herds in Nevada ‒ raising concerns that future human infections could be more serious.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that a second type of H5N1 bird flu had infected U.S. dairy herds, suggesting that cattle are more susceptible to the avian virus than previously believed and putting dairy workers at greater risk.