The Louisiana patient who contracted what officials said was the nation’s first “severe” case of avian influenza has died, the state health department said Monday. The person who contracted the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic bird flu in southwest Louisiana had been hospitalized since mid-December.

The deadly avian flu virus, H5N1, has impacted wildlife at the Nagpur Zoological Park, claiming the lives of three tigers and a leopard. In response, all zoos across Maharashtra have been placed on high alert.