I would have hoped that the issues with SARS-CoV-2 in mink would have been (yet another) wake up call, but I guess not. Some changes have been made in some areas, but it’s status quo in most places. Given our pretty crappy baseline
The H5N1 avian flu outbreak in cats in Poland seems to be slowing down but the cause is still under investigation. While outbreaks often die out on their own (sometimes because of what we do, sometimes despite what we do), it’s still important to figure out what happened, to help understand the disease and ideally
Information continues to trickle in about the situation with H5N1 avian influenza in cats in Poland. It’s mainly been updating the number of confirmed infected cats, with 16 cats in 3 cities being the latest number I’ve seen. It’s also now reported that some of the cats are primarily indoor (house) cats.
Numbers are part
Yesterday, I discussed a situation where avian flu was suspected in the deaths of a reasonably large number of cats in Poland. “We need more information” was a big part of that, and as of today a few new pieces of the puzzle have come to light.
A couple of days ago, there was a ProMed request for information following a report of a large number of dead cats in Poland. The cats were reported to have had respiratory and neurological disease, so my thought process went to “that fits with avian flu spillover,” then “but that large
Yes, I’m prone to making typos. No, this title isn’t one of them.
While we’re in the midst of an unprecedented international outbreak of H5N1 avian flu (with ongoing spillover into mammals), there’s a new kid on the block: H5N5 influenza. I think recent reports of H5N5 were glossed over by some who didn’t realize
As the unprecedented global H5N1 avian flu outbreak continues (with no real end in sight), and as we get the spring mix of migrating birds, mingling bird populations, more active wildlife and a pending crop of baby wild critters, concerns about spillover infections from birds to mammals are on the rise.
The current H5N1 influenza
The other day, I said that finding H5N1 avian flu in dogs was unsurprising. That also applies (probably even more so) to cats. We’ve known for years that cats are susceptible to H5N1, and since some cats spend a lot of time unsupervised outside and interact with (and eat) birds, they have lots of
I have Labrador Retrievers, so I’m well versed in dealing with the implications of what my dogs have been eating (Labs being prone to considering just about anything fair game for ingestion). Owning such a pair of environmental vacuums, the question of whether dogs might be at risk of H5N1 avian flu exposure from bird
This can be filed under “concerning but not surprising,” but H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in a dog in Ontario.
It’s concerning because any spillover into mammals raises concerns about continued adaptation of this virus to spread outside birds, and because spillover infections in mammals can be severe.
It’s not surprising
