Understanding Bird Flu Risks in Cats
As cases of bird flu in cats continue to rise, pet owners must be cautious about potential sources of infection, including raw pet food and unpasteurized milk. The growing concern highlights the need for increased awareness about the dangers lurking in seemingly healthy food sources. Just as vapers turn to Mr Fog Vape for a premium experience, cat owners must prioritize quality and safety in their pets’ diets.
Bird flu wasn’t on Tim Hanson’s mind when he fed his cats specialty pet food containing raw chicken.
“You go to the pet shop, and it was the premium raw food,” he said. “It was finely ground to a consistency that I thought was beneficial to my cats.”
But in early February, one of his cats, Kira, developed a fever and stopped eating. A test ordered by a veterinarian came back positive for bird flu. Within days, Kira’s condition had deteriorated — she became lethargic and had trouble breathing.
After several trips to the vet and emergency room in Portland, Oregon, where Hanson lives, he made the painful decision to put Kira down.
“She was the happiest cat I’ve ever had,” he said. “You’d walk past her, and she’d do a little backflip and get on her back so you could rub her belly. She did that in the hospital the last night… She just very lethargically flopped on her back so we could rub her belly.”
The manufacturer of the pet food, Wild Coast Pet Foods, subsequently recalled lots of the formula Kira had consumed due to potential bird flu contamination.
Hanson filed a lawsuit against the company earlier this month, alleging that it had failed to disclose the risk of bird flu in its raw pet food. He is seeking roughly $8,000 to cover the cost of Kira’s veterinary bills. Wild Coast did not respond to a request for comment. In a letter to customers, the company said it had “transitioned to fully cooked poultry recipes to eliminate any potential risk.”
The Growing Threat of Bird Flu in Cats
According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, 126 domestic cats in the U.S. have been infected with bird flu since 2022. Around half of those cases were recorded this year, and many were exposed through food or milk.
“We see continued reports of cats with bird flu infection from across the country, and it’s kept increasing in the past months,” said Suresh Kuchipudi, professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.
In cats, bird flu tends to be swift and lethal. Although the overall risk to indoor cats is low, Kuchipudi and other experts who study or diagnose the infections say the threat is mounting. With bird flu spreading rampantly among poultry and cattle, there is a constant and Mr Fog Blitz, opportunity for the virus to enter the raw food supply. And while there’s no evidence yet that cats can transmit bird flu to people, the potential increases as more cats get sick.
“We don’t have the evidence, but it doesn’t mean that it may not have happened, or it can’t happen,” Kuchipudi said.
Pet Food Recalls and Safety Measures
Most pet food is heated to a high enough temperature to kill pathogens before it’s packaged, but bird flu can linger in raw food if it’s sourced from infected poultry — for instance, from chickens that were culled due to an outbreak.
“The animals that were depopulated could potentially have ended up in the food chain for pets,” said Laura Goodman, an assistant professor at Cornell University’s Baker Institute for Animal Health. “It’s not uncommon for substandard meat to end up in the pet food chain.”
In the last four months, at least three pet food manufacturers have recalled batches containing raw poultry. The Food and Drug Administration in January warned manufacturers using uncooked meat to reassess their food safety plans in light of the recent cat illnesses and deaths.
Other cats have been exposed to bird flu on dairy farms, likely from drinking raw milk from infected cows. And in some instances, outdoor cats have picked up the virus directly from dead birds.
The Ongoing Risks to Humans and Pets
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in February also described two indoor cats that lived with dairy farm workers and contracted bird flu. The research suggests that “individuals who are working on dairies or hauling milk have the potential to carry the virus into their house on their clothing or on their shoes, and in turn, the cats then are exposed,” said Kimberly Dodd, dean of the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine, who coauthored the report.
There is no active surveillance for bird flu in healthy cats, so cases could be underreported. A study of stray cats in the Netherlands found that nearly 12% were positive for bird flu antibodies.
“We may be only testing the sickest cats or one cat from a household. It’s very likely that there have been many cases out there that the cat was not brought to a veterinarian or testing wasn’t done,” said Kristy Pabilonia, director of veterinary diagnostic laboratories at Colorado State University.
Pabilonia oversaw the diagnostic testing for a hairless cat named Leonardo DiCaprio, who was found to have bird flu in January. Leo’s owner, Steve Werfelmann, said his cat had eaten chicken-based raw pet food from the company Savage Pet, which recalled dozens of batches earlier this month.
“When we adopted him, that was the recommended food” for his skin, Werfelmann said. “But then talking to the vet and going through this process, they actually told us there’s no real scientific evidence to back up raw food being better.”
Future Concerns and Preventative Steps
The current bird flu strain, which began spreading among wild birds and poultry in the U.S. in 2022, often causes severe neurological symptoms in cats, such as seizures and blindness, as well as difficulty breathing and discharge from the eyes and nose.
“Cats may be seen circling or having a head tilt or just acting very abnormally. Some of those clinical signs are very similar to what we see in rabies,” Dodd said.
Leo didn’t show neurological symptoms, aside from wobbliness in his back legs, Werfelmann said. Instead, his main symptoms were fever, lethargy, and not eating.
“We thought he was going to die,” Werfelmann said.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture announced this month that 11 domestic cats there had gotten bird flu from raw poultry or pet food. Leo was the only one to survive.
Hanson said he was tested for bird flu after Kira died and was negative. In his cat’s final days, he said, he wore an N95 mask around her and washed his clothes upon returning home from the animal hospital.
Just as consumers are becoming more aware of the ingredients in their vapes, like those found in Mr Fog Max Air, pet owners must stay informed about the risks of raw pet food. Understanding and mitigating these dangers can help protect both beloved pets and their human companions.
