Twenty huge cats, together with a Bengal tiger, 4 cougars, a lynx and 4 bobcats, have died after contracting chook flu at an animal sanctuary in Shelton, Washington.
The massive cat deaths come as chook flu, a extremely pathogenic avian influenza, has unfold quickly by way of poultry flocks and dairy herds within the US, contaminated and killed home cats, and precipitated a extreme sickness in an individual in Louisiana.
The massive cats died between late November and mid-December on the Wild Felid Advocacy Middle, in keeping with the middle’s director, Mark Mathews.
“We’ve by no means had something prefer it; they often die principally of outdated age,” Mathews informed the New York Instances. “Not one thing like this, it’s a fairly depraved virus.”
Three different cats recovered from the virus, and one remained in vital situation on Tuesday. Final week, the middle introduced on Fb that chook flu had affected greater than half of its wild cats.
That got here lower than three weeks after the middle mentioned it was quickly closed to the general public, stating that a few of the animals have been experiencing an unknown sickness.
“We, together with our veterinary staff, are working tirelessly to find out the trigger and provide you with an answer,” the shelter wrote on Fb.
However on 6 December, the middle introduced that animal well being officers had confirmed the presence of chook flu in a few of its cats, saying that it was working with federal, state and county animal well being officers.
“As an animal sanctuary, we’re outfitted to handle viruses successfully by implementing strict biosecurity measures, quarantining affected animals, and disinfecting correctly to guard our different animals and the general public,” the middle mentioned.
However in a Fb publish 5 days in the past, the middle mentioned: “We’re heartbroken to share that animal well being officers have confirmed the presence of extremely pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) amongst over half of our wild felids as of December 2024.”
The middle defined that chook flu will also be contracted by carnivorous mammals that ingest contaminated birds or different merchandise.
“Cats are significantly weak to this virus, which might trigger delicate preliminary signs however progress quickly, typically leading to demise inside 24 hours resulting from pneumonia-like circumstances,” the assertion mentioned, including the middle was below quarantine and can stay closed to the general public till additional discover.
Solely 17 cats stay within the sanctuary because it strikes to find out the virus’s origin, which incorporates eradicating 8,000lbs of meals that had been saved in a freezer, and disinfecting every habitat.
The Washington division of fish and wildlife mentioned in a press release that it had confirmed avian influenza infections in “quite a few” wild birds this fall, and had just lately confirmed that two cougars in one other space had the H5N1 virus.
The deaths come six days after well being officers in Los Angeles mentioned they’re investigating three family cats presumed to have chook flu, as officers confirmed the illness in two different cats who had drunk recalled uncooked milk and died.
At a Texas dairy earlier this 12 months, 12 barn cats died after ingesting contaminated uncooked milk.
In California, chook flu has contaminated a lot of the state’s dairy cattle herds this 12 months, with cows in 645 dairies testing optimistic for H5N1. There have been no less than 61 human circumstances reported in the US to this point, with a lot of the people experiencing delicate signs.
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