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H5N1 is contagious for bird to bird transmission as they have the sialic acid receptors for infection in many places, Humans only have these receptors deep in the lungs, hence low human to human transmission. But H5N1 has like 50%+ mortality rate for humans if caught. So chicken farmers would be at super high risk. Now if it mutates to be more human to human transmissible we're in trouble.

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> So chicken farmers would be at super high risk.

They're ostensibly "at risk" but it's not "super high", not even close. There has only been one confirmed human cases of H5N1 in the US [1], which has the fifth most chickens of any country in the world. That one case was a poultry worker who was culling sick birds.

Chicken farmers have to go out of their way to get infected.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/chart-epi-curve-ah5n1.html

Only if it mutates to be more human to human transmissible without losing virulence. Which is definitely possible but not guaranteed. And there are so many other potentially deadly viruses out there that are only a few steps away from causing a new pandemic.

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