It’s fair to say that raw pet foods have clearly been source of H5N1 influenza infections in cats, some of which have been fatal – even though sometimes it’s impossible to make a definitive link between the food and infection because of when and how the infection occurred, and what could or could not be
A recent opinion article in the Washington Post about how to protect cats from H5N1 influenza includes some good considerations, but alongside some bad information. It’s prompted me to write a bit about pet food preparation and how it does (and does not) affect the presence of infectious pathogens (but please keep in mind while
Details have now been released about the information that was briefly posted then removed from the US CDC website a couple weeks ago regarding suspected household transmission of H5N1 flu to and from cats. It’s great to have more details, but (as is common with emerging diseases) the full story probably raises more
The Washington State Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Department of Agriculture have issued a public health alert because of H5N1 influenza virus contamination of another brand of raw pet food, following the deaths of two more indoor cats from separate households linked to consumption of the pet food.
Details are sparse, but
I think it’s fair to say H5N1 becoming seemingly endemic in US dairy cattle in the past year caught us off guard. The virus has spread widely within and between US dairy herds, has caused mild infections in a number of people in close contact with infected cows, has killed a lot of cats on
The more H5N1 influenza continues to circulate in wild and domestic birds around the world, including here in North America, the more we have to be concerned about exposure of pets to H5N1 influenza through raw food diets. Recent documented infections in cats fed raw meat from infected birds have highlighted these concerns. For
H5N1 influenza has been widespread is US dairy cattle for close to a year, so you might wonder why a recent report of H5N1 in dairy cattle in Nevada is garnering extra attention. Well, it all comes down to the strain. TLDR:
Earlier today I wrote about a New York Times story about some interesting H5N1 flu transmission data from the US CDC that was posted briefly on Wednesday and was then quickly removed from the CDC website. The information suggested they’d identified cat-to-human and human-to-cat transmission of H5N1 flu in two separate households, both of
Cat-to-human or human-to-cat transmission of H5N1 influenza would be concerning but not too surprising.
Suppression of information by the US government would be concerning but not surprising given what’s going on at the moment.
But, did those occur?
The sharp eyes at the New York Times have raised concerns, because they spotted a CDC report
Addendum: The Oregon Veterinary Medical Association has indicated in a release that the cat discussed below was euthanized because of the severity of disease. That’s more consistent with the severe disease that’s usually reported but I think the discussion below still applies since this seems to have been an initial primary respiratory disease presentation. It
