Polish house cats die due to bird flu

[Jana]

According to a series of articles issued by Polish regional veterinary office, bird flu was detected in 9 out of 11 house cat carcasses delivered for laboratory testing due to suspition for H5N1 infection.

These dead cats originated from households in Poznan, Trojmiesto and Lublin areas (south and southeast of Poland).

Virus found was closely related to bird flu cases detected in Polish wild and farm birds earlier, with mutations that make it more suitable to infect mammals.

Source

I think this might have implication also for zoo animals because contact with wild birds is hard/impossible to prevent in outside enclosures. This would also imply more rigorous quarantine rules for moving mammals between collections, at least in this part of Europe.

 

[Jana]

The source of infection in Polish cats has been probably found. Raw chicken meat bought in supermarket chain and fed to one of the cats was found contaminated with bird flu.
Source

That would explain almost identical genetical material isolated from already +20 cats that died all over Poland, some of them kept only indoors and without mortality in feral colonies (where virus that might spread cat-to-cat should be visible).

This would imply that cat owners (and zoos) should not feed raw poultry meat imported from Poland to their cats and any other sensitive species for next few months.