(ABC 6 News) – Outbreaks of bird flu have been reported across the country and now cases are popping up in dairy cows and even a human. It has people on high alert wondering how to protect themselves and their livestock.

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Preventing bird flu comes down to one word: biosecurity, or the set of practices farmers use to keep animals safe and healthy and keep germs and bacteria away from livestock.

When it comes to biosecurity, dairy farmer Jeff Pagel doesn’t play around.

“The biggest thing that we’re doing is probably just trying to limit the amount of people that are on farm,” said Pagel.

An interview with Pagel had to be held virtually, as he works on protecting his farm and preventing anyone from getting close to his cows.

“By not having having people come to the farm, we just lower our risk of not not exposing ourselves to the bird flu,” said Pagel

Experts also encourage farmers to keep feed piles covered and water sources clean, so wild birds can’t access it. Michael Crusan, Communications Director at the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, adds farmers should keep new animals away from the herd for at least 21 to 30 days, while monitoring them for signs of illness.

“The one thing that we can tell producers, regardless of what animals they might have, is that they can all use the same tool, they can all use the same precautions. And that goes back to that biosecurity,” said Crusan.

Luckily for dairy farmers, if a cow is infected, all they need to do is keep it away from the rest of the herd and monitor it until symptoms improve.

Then when they’re healthy, they can go back into the herd.

“It’s kind of like you and I getting the common cold. It appears that this behaves similarly in cows, where they’re getting over it and recovering from it,” said Crusan.

For now, Pagel isn’t too concerned about his cows getting infected.

“It’s so new. There’s a lot of research to do. Just diving deeper into it to figure out what exactly we’re dealing with and where we go from here. So not necessarily worried, but just more aware of what’s going on,” said Pagel.

One case of bird flu had been reported in a goat Minnesota on March 20 by the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated no cased of bird flu had been reported in Minnesota