Several labs will work with federal health authorities to develop a test for avian influenza, as the number of human cases rise across the country.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has picked five lab partners to develop a test for avian influenza A (H5N1) — bird flu — including ARUP Laboratories in Salt Lake City. The other lab partners are Quest Diagnostics, Labcorp, Aegis Sciences and Ginkgo Bioworks.

There is no current threat of the bird flu becoming a pandemic, but the partnership aims to prepared for any situation.

A Utah research laboratory may play a key role in advancing bird flu testing amid an outbreak in commercial and backyard poultry flocks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention selected ARUP Laboratories,

ARUP Laboratories has been selected by the CDC as a formal partner in the development of a test for avian influenza A

A close contact of a Missouri resident identified as having a human case of the H5N1 avian flu also became sick around the same time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed.

A patient in Missouri who was hospitalized after an infection with bird flu had the H5N1 strain of the virus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Friday.

In a case that continues to confound scientists, U.S. health officials said Thursday that they still don't know how a Missouri patient caught the bird flu and that the case may just be a rare anomaly.