State agriculture officials announced this week that the highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza, known as bird flu, was detected on a commercial farm in Caroline County, the first case detected in Maryland this year. The Baltimore Sun reports the Maryland Department of Agriculture said in a statement Thursday that preliminary results of testing on a broiler chicken farm in the county detected the highly contagious virus among birds on the farm, where the birds are raised for meat production. Jennifer Trout, the state veterinarian, said Friday that there’s a low risk to public health, but that those who regularly interact with birds should brush up on biosafety measures.