The US Food and Drug Administration surveyed pasteurized retail samples of milk and estimated that a fifth of the US milk supply contained strands of virus.
The virus the alpacas were infected with was the same strain that has been spreading among dairy cattle in recent months.
A nasal swab of the farm worker tested negative, but an eye swab tested negative.
Ferrets are seen as an important model for analyzing how viruses could affect humans as they can be infected by human flu viruses.
The H5N1 subvariant of bird flu has been increasingly reported in cattle in recent months.
Analyses of viruses found in the cows have so far not found any changes affiliated with transmission between people.
The CDC stressed that the overall human health risk of the bird flu remains low.
Unlike poultry, the cattle do not need to be culled and are expected to make a full recovery.
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health noted that the risk to the public is “extremely low.”
Scientists have warned that the impact of the bird flu on Antarctic wildlife could be "immense."
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