Report: Cats Can Spread Bird Flu to Other Felines

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON – Cats not only can catch the deadly bird flu but can spread it to other felines, Dutch researchers said in a report yesterday that raises important questions about the pets’ role in outbreaks.


So far, cats have not been implicated in the spread of avian flu to people, said Dr. Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization’s influenza chief.


There are two potential reasons, he said. “One is nobody looked. The other is they don’t play a role” because infected cats do not shed nearly as much virus as do infected poultry, Dr. Stohr said.


Bird flu has caused recurring outbreaks in recent years and has killed 27 people in Asia this year. Until now, human infections have been traced to direct contact with infected poultry or poultry waste, and millions of chickens and other fowl have been slaughtered in attempts to stem the disease.


Hearing of the Dutch discovery, the WHO urged scientists to examine household cats and other mammals whenever researchers investigate human bird-flu infections. The first such check, in Vietnam last week, found cats in patients’ households were healthy, Dr. Stohr said.


The cat research “is of considerable concern” because it illustrates the virus’s continuing adaptation in mammals, said Dr. Nancy Cox of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


“It increases opportunities for human infection, this time from a mammalian species,” said Dr. Cox, who wonders if dogs, too, are infected. “We need to do a lot more in the veterinary arena in order to understand what other animals can be infected and can transmit the virus.”


Because bird flu is quite different from human influenza strains that typically infect people, scientists fear it eventually could lead to a human flu pandemic. So they are closely watching for the virus among other mammals.


Last winter, Thai veterinarians reported that bird flu had killed three house cats. That was a big surprise, because domesticated cats have long been thought resistant to infection from influenza A viruses, the family that harbors bird flu, called H5N1.


The new research, reported in the journal Science, goes further to show cats fairly easily spread the disease to each other.


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