The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is providing pet owners and animal caretakers with information about ways to reduce the risk to their animals of contracting Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1).
Felines, including both domestic and wild cats, such as tigers, mountain lions, lynx, etc., are particularly sensitive to HPAI and care should be taken to not expose these animals to the virus.
There have been several recent investigations indicating transmission of HPAI to cats through food, most often unpasteurized milk or raw or undercooked meats. Cats should not be fed any products from affected farms that have not been thoroughly cooked or pasteurized to kill the virus. Cats should also be kept from hunting and consuming wild birds.
The CDC reported in a July 2024 paper that domestic cats fed unpasteurized milk on a dairy farm with sick cows displayed neurologic signs and died from systemic influenza infections. Researchers in South Korea also documented several cases of HPAI in 2023 at two cat shelters where the animals were fed raw food made from duck meat. The USDA maintains a testing program for detections of HPAI in wild mammals that includes feral and domestic cats.
Dogs can also contract HPAI, though they currently appear to be less susceptible to the virus than cats. It is also a best practice to limit dog exposure to HPAI following the same recommendations as for cats.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, you should seek veterinary care if your cat or dog appears to have any of the following signs:
- Fever
- Lethargy
- Low appetite
- Reddened or inflamed eyes
- Discharge from the eyes and nose
- Difficulty breathing
- Neurologic signs, like tremors, seizures, incoordination, or blindness
Issued by FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine. For questions, Contact CVM.
Personal Note: Although the FDA would likely never admit it, pet food made from feed grade ingredients (especially minimally processed pet foods made from feed grade ingredients) could be more of a risk for HPAI than pet foods made from human grade ingredients (USDA inspected and passed meats). As well, feed grade manufacturing facilities that have leaky roofs (as exampled in the Mid America Warning Letter) could be a potential risk of HPAI infected processed pet foods (from infected wild bird feces entering the facility through roof leaks).
Ask your pet food manufacturer if meat ingredients are USDA inspected and passed, and ask for a guarantee the manufacturing facility is free from roof water leaks.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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T Allen
December 13, 2024 at 5:09 pm
Good timing Susan. With H5N1 more in the news I’ve been considering this myself. I was looking at your new food list and one of the things I was looking at was where in the US their processing plant(s) are. Right now the version of H5N1 that is crossing species is out west, so east of the Mississippi is likely safer but it probably won’t be for long. Yhanks for the update!
Dick McWay
December 13, 2024 at 5:44 pm
Highly “pathogenic’! Yeah right. I suggest folks take a gander at these headlines from Christine Massey. She has been beating the drums relentlessly on this notion of “viruses”.
https://www.fluoridefreepeel.ca/?s=avian+flu+virus
Another website: https://viroliegy.com
kay
January 7, 2025 at 2:37 pm
Thanks McWay. Another planned scam-demic. The government wants to go after our pets, our cattle, our food source. Another scare tactic for the masses. This H5N1 been around for a very long time, in the 80’s. Then in 2009-2010, there was a huge bird flu that came from China. I owned two cats and a Parrot, had chickens, and goats. I had a touch of the flu, and the doctor wanted to know if I owned animals (especially a Parrot). Anyway thank you for the websites and take care. Thank you Susan for at least putting it all out there, for us to do our research. And for God’s sake, people need to stop the fear pushing!
kay
January 7, 2025 at 4:07 pm
Thank you Dick McWay for the websites. Just another scam demic. FDA, is a joke. So is the CDC, USDA. Back in 2009-2010 there was a big scare of the Bird Flu… was a bunch of BS. If more people would research and do common sense. Just like vaccines for animals will cause more trouble in the long run, now its the narrative to scare pet owners, farmers and the public.
Kathy
December 13, 2024 at 5:44 pm
I’ve been looking for a website that lists affected farms, with no luck so far. Do you know where that information can be found? I have trust in Wild Coast Raw but would feel better if I knew they weren’t sourcing from one of those farms. Thanks.
Amy
December 13, 2024 at 5:48 pm
We need to be really really careful on propagating this urban Legend. It’s a new one, but it’s still gonna go down as a legend, just like the whole grain free pet food fiasco did!
The cats in South Korea ate condemned duck. It was condemned meat
Cat stick their face in their food. It’s a respiratory virus. They breathe it in through their nose. Healthy meat does not carry the virus
The test that is being used to “document” infection, and cattle is a PCR test. It’s testing for presents of DNA. That does not mean that it is active at all!
I’m sure that mammals were invented with memory glands in order to confirm healthy immunity to the offspring. Which means natural immunity to a virus.
Susan Thixton
December 13, 2024 at 6:04 pm
I certainly felt like FDA was trying to link the virus to raw pet foods, without giving pet owners the full story. Thank you for your comment – I completely agree with you.
Brenda Wilcox
December 14, 2024 at 2:30 am
I have a cattery. I have read the report on the Cattle Ranch in TX where barn cats died of Influenza-A in March 2024. They drank raw milk from the cows that tested positive. However, they couldn’t rule out that the barn cats hadn’t eaten any wild birds, nor do they know how the cows became infected.
That being said, I personally know 2 Siberian cats in Southern CA that they suspect died from Influenza-A (only thing positive on PCR’s – Respiratory, Fever of Unknown Origin, and Diarrhea) which I agree only show that DNA was present, and don’t diagnose disease. Plus no necropsy was done to confirm due to positive PCR results. Ugh.
These cats were fed a raw diet (chicken 80/10/10 mix) which of course has been deemed by their Veterinarian to be the problem. Meat and eggs were organic and purchased from high end grocery chain.
I have connections in a poultry company in CA who says they have had recalls due to bird flu being detected. They are sending out warnings.
So, curious what are you thoughts? Should we as raw food enthusiasts switch to another protein source until we know more?
Thank you for all you do. Keep fighting the good fight!!
Susan Thixton
December 14, 2024 at 7:54 am
Hi Brenda –
I have five cats (and two dogs), and I am still feeding them raw. I have no plans to change that. I believe processed foods could be the same risk as un-processed/minimally processed that are feed grade and/or their manufacturing facility is in poor repair.
Kyle
December 14, 2024 at 10:27 am
I think the best way to mitigate any potential transmission to your cats is to remove them from an environment where transmission could occur.
Or, to put it simply: keep your cats inside. They can’t become infected by wild carriers if they’re kept out of an environment conducive to its spread.
ARJ
December 16, 2024 at 10:05 am
Beyond thrilled that I recently discovered this site and your work, Susan!
I know this kind of work is HARD, but I hope you feel proud and appreciated. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help YOU!