“Home cats are in reality extremely at risk of avian influenza, and particularly H5N1,” mentioned Kristen Coleman, an infectious illness researcher on the College of Maryland. “However there was a contemporary uptick in home cat infections, a drastic uptick.”
There were sporadic stories of inflamed canine, too.
Whilst chicken flu infections of pets stay uncommon general, they are able to be critical, particularly in cats. “It leads to very critical sickness and oftentimes dying,” Dr. Coleman mentioned. “So it’s very critical, and it must be taken significantly.”
However a couple of “cheap precautions” can lend a hand folks stay their pets protected, she mentioned.
Right here’s what to grasp:
How are cats getting chicken flu?
On dairy farms, cats have been inflamed after consuming unpasteurized milk, sometimes called uncooked milk, which comprises very top ranges of the virus, from in poor health cows. Greater than 80 p.c of affected dairy farms had cats on their premises, and greater than part of the ones farms reported in poor health or useless cats, in line with federal knowledge launched on Thursday.
However even sooner than the new dairy outbreak, there have been stories of inflamed cats, a few of which almost certainly stuck the virus after they preyed upon inflamed birds. “As we get extra useless, wild birds at the panorama, if we get extra useless poultry at the panorama, those carnivores that can get into them and ingest them, even when they’re useless, are getting only a huge dose of virus,” mentioned Dr. Justin Brown, a flora and fauna veterinarian at Penn State.
A couple of better outbreaks have additionally been related to infected uncooked poultry. In 2023, for example, chicken flu outbreaks hit two cat shelters in Seoul. Govt investigators there due to this fact discovered the virus in uncooked duck meat fed to the cats.