“Domestic cats are actually very susceptible to bird flu, and particularly H5N1,” said Kristen Coleman, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Maryland. “But there has been a recent increase in infections from domestic cats, a drastic increase.”
There have been sporadic reports of infected dogs, too.
While bird flu infections in pets generally remain rare, they can be serious, especially in cats. “It results in very serious illness and often death,” Dr Coleman said. “So it is very serious and should be taken seriously.”
But some “common sense precautions” can help people keep their pets safe, he said.
Here’s what you need to know:
How do cats get bird flu?
On dairy farms, cats became infected after drinking unpasteurized milk, also known as raw milk, which contains very high levels of the virus, from sick cows. More than 80 percent of affected dairy farms had cats on their premises, and more than half of those reported sick or dead cats, according to federal data released Thursday.
But even before the recent dairy outbreak, there were reports of infected cats, some of which likely contracted the virus when they bit into infected birds. “As we’re dying more, wild birds in the landscape, if we have more dead poultry in the landscape, those carnivores that might get into them and ingest them, even after they’re dead, they’re just getting a huge dose of virus. ” said Dr. Justin Brown, a wildlife veterinarian at Penn State.
Some larger outbreaks have also been linked to contaminated raw poultry. In 2023, for example, bird flu outbreaks hit two cat shelters in Seoul. Government researchers subsequently found the virus in raw duck meat fed to the cats.
