San Francisco public well being officers mentioned it was first notified of the chook flu within the cat on July 17, after it confirmed “respiratory and neurologic signs.” A neighborhood vet examined the cat for influenza A, which got here again optimistic. The California Division of Public Well being confirmed the an infection on July 31.
SFDPH mentioned there aren’t any further suspected or confirmed instances in San Francisco, no proof of person-to-person transmission and the well being threat to most of the people stays low.
Jane Sykes, an epidemiology professor on the UC Davis College of Veterinary Drugs, mentioned chook flu is especially harmful to cats as a result of it’s neurotropic, that means it impacts the nervous system, inflicting signs past respiration issue. And it’s rapidly lethal in two-thirds of infections in cats.
“They begin exhibiting indicators of a fever, having bother respiration and twitching or seizuring after which they’re useless inside days of that occuring, and there’s no remedy,” Sykes mentioned. “That may additionally make cats seem like they’ve rabies.”
The American Veterinary Medical Affiliation mentioned current investigations have discovered that cats are probably to be contaminated with the avian flu by unpasteurized milk and uncooked or undercooked meat, like poultry.
The FDA mentioned that whereas no human instances of avian influenza have been present in people by pet meals, it does advocate that folks wash their arms adequately after dealing with pet meals.
Whereas the FDA has issued a product security alert, no recall has been introduced as of Thursday. RAWR recommends that people who find themselves involved about “potential” virus of their meals to prepare dinner it to an inside temperature of 165 levels Fahrenheit or return it for a full refund or alternate.
Sykes — a self-described “cat and canine particular person” — mentioned whereas uncooked pet meals diets are stylish, they’ll unnecessarily put a cat’s well being in danger.
“The chance of infectious ailments generally will be lowered by feeding cats and canine correctly cooked meat, pasteurized dairy merchandise or a business weight loss plan that’s been processed utilizing excessive temperatures, which is most canned and dry pet meals diets in giant grocery or pet shops,” she mentioned.
What’s extra, Sykes mentioned, is that cats are good “mixing pots” for viruses, so feeding them uncooked meat really will increase the danger of the chook flu virus mutating in a cat after which making it infectious to individuals.
“We’ve bought this specific pressure of influenza virus that appears to be very, in case you like, promiscuous; it’s superb at mixing with different viruses,” Sykes mentioned. “It’s an actual fear that with feeding of uncooked meals diets, that we’re going to extend the chance for certainly one of these mixing occasions to happen that would generate a brand new virus that might be like certainly one of these pandemic flu strains that mainly does to people what this virus does to cats.”
That’s notably regarding, Sykes mentioned, as a result of chook flu is at present lethal in 67% of cats who present signs.
“Are you able to think about if there was an influenza virus that had a more-than 67% mortality charge that bought into individuals?” she mentioned. “That may simply be horrible if we had been confronted with a pandemic like that.”
