Bird Flu in Pets and Other Animals

The deadly strain of bird flu has been found in a cat in Germany, officials said Tuesday, the first time the virus has been identified in an animal other than a bird in central Europe.

Health officials urged cat owners to keep pets indoors after the dead cat was discovered over the weekend on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, where most of the more than 100 wild birds infected by the H5N1 strain have been found.
(snip)
However, Maria Cheng of the World Health Organization in Geneva said there was not enough information on how the disease is transmitted to be sure. She noted that tigers and snow leopards in a zoo in Thailand became infected after being fed chicken carcasses, dying from H5N1 in 2003 and 2004.

"But we don't know what this means for humans. We don't know if they would play a role in transmitting the disease. We don't know how much virus the cats would excrete, how much people would need to be exposed to before they would fall ill," Cheng said. Health officials are concerned H5N1 could mutate into a form that is transmitted easily among humans, which could lead to a pandemic.

Cheng said the discovery of bird flu in a cat in Germany underscores that the deadly H5N1 strain can infect a wide range of mammals.

Scientists are particularly concerned about bird flu infecting pigs, because swine can also become infected with the human flu virus. The fear is the two viruses could swap genetic material and create a new virus that could set off a human flu pandemic.

"We're particularly worried about pigs because they can have both human and bird flu at the same time and they can pass it on back to humans in a new form, which is essentially what happened in the last two pandemics" in 1957 and 1968, Cheng said.

http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/ap/2006/02/28/ap2559523.html

The pigs are a scary problem. According to experts there is a strain of flu that is endemic in them which if it merges with the H5N1 strain may make it easier to transmit among humans. A strain coming from the marriage of H5N1 and swine could be the pandemic strain.

Until last week, the Germany holiday island of Rügen was best known for its sweeping cliffs and idyllic beaches. Now the Baltic resort is famous for its dead cat. Over the weekend, scientists in Germany revealed that an unidentified feline had died of the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu. It had, apparently, been infected after devouring a wild bird. It was the first time that a mammal has perished of bird flu in Europe and symptoms of panic soon emerged. But what about the cat?

We know a few tantalising details of its biography. The fallen feline was white with black spots. It weighed 4.8 kilos. And it didn't have a name as such, (though it's fair to surmise that it probably wasn't known as Lucky). According to locals, it was a male stray, living on the picturesque west coast of Rügen not far from the quiet harbour village of Schaprode. (The area is popular with tourists - they hop on the local ferry to Hiddensee, a small car-free island where you get around by bike or horse-drawn carriage.)
We know, alas, little else. But we can imagine the cat hanging out in Rügen's sandy dunes and pine forests, whiling away the hours pursuing mice and chasing after wild geese. It would have frolicked in the nearby marshes. It may even have been happy. What is certain is that last week a local farmer who had been feeding the cat from time to time noticed that something was wrong. Tobias Woettendorf, an employee at the local crisis centre opened to deal with the outbreak, relived the cat's final moments. It was behaving "weirdly", he says. "It started running round in circles. It was basically a wild cat. But the farmer decided to take it in for the night. When he woke up the next morning and checked the pen the cat was dead."

The bereaved farmer immediately informed the authorities, who took the cat - let's call him Spotty - away for tests. Yesterday the farmer was said to be feeling OK, with no apparent symptoms of the disease. Nevertheless the Spotty affair is something of a blow to Germany's 7.3 million cat-owners, who have now been told that a bedtime cuddle with Felix, Gismo or Charlie - the country's three most popular cat names - might not be such a good idea. Yesterday, Germany's government told cat owners in affected areas to keep their pets indoors. At the same time, squads of health inspectors have been sent out - a bit like one of the darker fables from the Brothers Grimm - to round up all stray moggies. What fate awaits them is murkily unclear.

Full Article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/birdflu/story/0,,1721200,00.html

Three cats have tested positive for the deadly strain of bird flu in Austria's first reported case of the disease spreading to an animal other than a bird, state authorities said Monday.

The sick cats were among 170 living at an animal shelter where the disease was detected in chickens last month, authorities said.

The World Health Organization called bird flu a greater global challenge than any previous infectious disease, costing global agriculture more than $10 billion and affecting the livelihoods of 300 million farmers.

Poland reported its first outbreak of the disease, saying Monday that laboratory tests confirmed that two wild swans had died of the lethal strain.

Dr. Margaret Chan, who is spearheading WHO's efforts against bird flu, told disease experts meeting in Geneva to discuss bird flu preparations that the organization's top priority was to keep the deadly strain from mutating into a form easily passed between humans. That could trigger a global pandemic.

Since February, the virus has spread to birds in 17 new countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, she said.

"We truly feel that this present threat and any other threat like it is likely to stretch our global systems to the point of collapse," said Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic alert and response.

WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng said experts hope to isolate outbreaks and establish agreements allowing international health authorities to respond quickly, testing viruses and putting in place measures to contain the disease.

In Austria, all the cats from the affected shelter have been moved to a location where they will remain under observation. The shelter has been closed, Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat told reporters in Vienna.

"We have decided to put all the cats in quarantine," Rauch-Kallat said. "Here they will be observed by veterinarians and experts in the coming days and weeks."

German authorities last month confirmed that a cat on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen had succumbed to the deadly virus, which it is believed to have caught by eating an infected bird.

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/03/06/ap2573271.html

GENEVA: Reports that cats have contracted bird flu could mean the virus is adapting to mammals and poses a potentially higher risk to humans, a World Health Organisation official says.

Michael Perdue, a scientist with the organisation's global influenza program, said more studies were needed on infections in cats, including how they shed the virus.

But Dr Perdue said that there was no evidence that cats were hidden carriers of the virus, which can wipe out poultry flocks in 48 hours and infect people.

Austria said on Monday that a cat in an animal sanctuary in the southern city of Graz had tested positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus but had yet to show any symptoms of the disease.

However, the virus could take up to a week to strike and it was possible the cat could still develop clinical signs, Dr Perdue said.

"We have to follow up with laboratory studies to see if it [the virus] changed genetically and is not causing clinical signs," he said.

"If it is true, it would imply the virus has changed significantly."

Full Article:

http://smh.com.au/news/world/fears-bird-flu-may-have-adapted/2006/03/08/1141701573946.html

Originally posted by AvengingAngel
Birds, cats, tigers, leopards. H5N1 seems to be everywhere.

Actually, let's call it HP H5N1 since it's killing over half the people that get infected with it and go to the hospital, where HP stands for 'highly pathogenic'.

How long before H5N1 mutates or undergoes 'recombination' and becomes extremely contagious among people, thus sparking a global pandemic? :(

I agree, AA. The name needs to be changed: bird flu sounds so innocuous. How about the Red Death? Since bleeding from the mouth, nose and eyes is a common symptom. The Red Death would make people sit up and take notice.

I wish I knew when this will happen. Considering the increasingly fatalistic tone of WHO and influenza experts, I fear that it could be any time now.

As Bird Flu Spreads, Man's Best Friends Get a Second Look
There Are Ways to Keep You and Your Pets Safe

March 12, 2006 — - Pet lovers around the world reacted with dread when a cat in Germany was discovered dead last month, a victim of bird flu. Alarmingly, tests confirmed that the cat had died of the H5N1 strain of the virus, a form known to be deadly to humans.

As panic set in, animal shelters throughout Europe were overwhelmed with healthy animals dropped off or abandoned by their owners. Several countries have enacted quarantine zones where avian flu has been discovered, and German officials are enforcing a "cat curfew," requiring owners to keep cats indoors in affected areas.

Is it merely panic, or are there serious risks to pets and to families with cats and other pets? Is there anything pet owners can do to protect their pets and themselves from disease?

Risks Are Real, Experts Say

Dr. James R. Richards, director of the Cornell Feline Health Center at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, N.Y., believes quarantines and curfews are a sensible preventive step.

"I don't think it's an overreaction at all," Richards said. "It is a concern on a number of different levels. Cats may play a role in transmission of the virus to humans," though he is quick to point out that there is currently no evidence that cats are a risk to humans.

The virus, Richards noted, has shown up in cats before. The H5N1 virus was discovered in tigers and leopards in a Thailand zoo as early as 2003. Household cats in Thailand have also died of the H5N1 virus, according to the World Health Organization.

Research conducted since these feline deaths has confirmed that cats can harbor the H5N1 virus and, of greater concern, can transmit the killer virus to other cats through respiratory secretions, feces or urine.

Can Your Pet Infect You?
Many animals, including dogs, cats and other pets, can transmit viral or bacterial diseases to humans, either through direct contact with bodily secretions or through parasites like fleas. Examples of these zoonotic diseases include salmonellosis, bartonellosis (cat-scratch disease), tapeworm, roundworm, cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, toxoplasmosis and rabies.

The greatest concern to health officials is the ability of viruses like H5N1 to mutate in the bodies of infected animals into forms that are easily transmitted to humans.

Full Article:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/print?id=1706795

Cats, dogs, and other mammals are being infected with the lethal H5N1 bird flu strain. This thread is for news on this subject and advice to pet owners and individuals to avoid infection.

[bikerduck]

2 Weeks ago, 3 cats inside a Austrian shelter were found to be infected with the virus. All 3 survived. Experts where baffled as why the 3 cats survived but the cat in Germany did not.
No link, happened 2 weeks ago, read about it in Austrian news paper on-line.

Bikerduck

Bikerduck,

You can add stone martins, which are like weasels, dogs, zoo animals like tigers to the infected list. I hope this doesn't end up as a mammal holocaust. Spielberg movie.

Health workers went door-to-door looking for people with bird flu symptoms in western India on Wednesday, while the virus killed a dog in the former Soviet state of Azerbaijan.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-03-15T162403Z_01_N12232814_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU.xml&archived=False

JOHANNESBURG, March 22 (Reuters) - The deadly bird flu virus may pose a fresh threat to endangered mammal species including big cats such as tigers and leopards, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Wednesday.

UNEP said it was especially concerned about countries like Vietnam, which is home to both a rich variety of wild species and a large poultry industry that has been hit by avian flu outbreaks.

"A far wider range of species, including rare and endangered ones, may be affected by highly virulent avian flu than has previously been supposed," UNEP said in a statement.

It said experts at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference in Brazil said "there is growing evidence that the H5N1 virus can infect and harm big cats like leopards and tigers, small cats such as civets and other mammals like martens, weasels, badgers and otters."

Full article:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22367371.htm

[spageddy]

Should backyard bird watchers get rid of their feeders?

[spageddy]

I do love birds, but not THAT much. I guess I was thinking about handling the feeders.But, THANKS, Angel- a few folks have suggested that I not make my feathered friends so welcome in my yard. When I saw a display of bird seed containing something to inhance the birds' immune system I thought...hmmm... well, I don't know WHAT I thought, but it made me TRY to think. DUHHH.

With every piece of reassurance there comes a catch. Consider the claim that you can't get bird flu from poultry that has been properly cooked. What about raw poultry?

Eating raw poultry or drinking poultry blood is uncommon, although it is done in some cuisines. But many animals -- carnivores that prey on small animals like birds -- do eat poultry raw. And some, like cats and dogs, live closely with humans. They also seem to be competent hosts for the virus.

Some scientists have been concerned about this and last week they laid out those concerns in the scientific journal, Nature.

A scientist with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization is setting up a study aimed at trying to determine if cats are playing a role in the spread of the H5N1 avian flu virus, looking at Indonesia where a perplexing pattern of human cases has raised questions about how the disease is transmitting.

Dr. Peter Roeder and Indonesian colleagues will be looking for infected cats in areas with H5N1 outbreaks in poultry. Indonesia is the current hot zone of H5N1 infection, reporting 30 cases — including 23 deaths — since last July.

Experts have been watching the country closely, puzzled by the tenuous and at times seemingly non-existent links between some human cases and infected poultry. Elsewhere investigations have almost always traced human infections back to contact with sick or dead birds.

“The worry is in quite a significant number of human cases in Indonesia that there is no apparent connection between the people and poultry,” Dr. Roeder, an animal health officer with the FAO, said in an interview from Beirut, where he was attending a conference.

“Now is it possible that cats could be an intermediary between the two? I'm not wanting to propose that they are, but what I'm saying is I think this raises the question.”

Dr. Roeder and some scientists from Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam explored just that issue in a commentary published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

They argued that given the growing number of reports of dying cats in areas with H5N1 outbreaks, and the fact that laboratory experiments have shown cats can become infected and spread the virus cat to cat, it would be imprudent to rule out feline involvement in the spread of virus.

Full article:
http://effectmeasure.blogspot.com/

[Deepwater]

Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Cats that died during an outbreak of bird flu in Iraq last February were infected with the H5N1 virus, U.S. naval medical researchers reported.

Any cat that becomes ill or dies when suspected bird flu is circulating should be tested for the virus, the Navy team reported in the August issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The team at the Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 or NAMRU-3, based in Cairo, have been studying bird flu viruses taken from animals and people in the region.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus spread out of eastern Asia and into Europe and the Middle East late in 2005. It has been found in 48 countries since it re-emerged in 2003, mostly in birds.

It can infect other animals as well as humans, and has so far killed at least 134 people in 9 countries. Experts are afraid it may evolve just enough to pass easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.

Samuel Yingst, Magdi Saad and Stephen Felt of NAMRU-3 had been hearing stories from veterinarians in Turkey and Iraq who said cats had died where bird flu outbreaks were being reported in January.

Full Article:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N06309606.htm

[Deepwater]

The H5Ni has actually been confirmed, but only the Dutch papers covered it. Incredibly, they kept the zoo open to visitors.

This article has the beginning of the H5N1 before it was confirmed:

Aug 12 (Reuters) - Two young owls which died in a zoo in Rotterdam are suspected of having the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Dutch farm ministry said late on Saturday.

The Netherlands, Europe's second biggest poultry producer after France, has never reported a case of the highly pathogenic avian flu strain which is endemic in parts of Asia and has spread to birds in a number of European Union countries.0312.htm

Full Article:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MIK28AMSTERDAM,

[David_Lohr]

Farmers fear animal ID system is too intrusive

THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, October 22, 2006

NORTH BRANCH - Some call it Big Brother for animals.

A voluntary national program to track and identify food animals is drawing fire from some farmers and consumers as a threat to privacy and individual rights.

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is specifically designed to trace livestock back to a herd of origin within 48 hours, said Kevin Kirk, special assistant to the animal industry division of the Michigan Department of Agriculture.

Full Story:
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/11615160506690.xml&coll=5

[David_Lohr]

Study Shows Poultry Most Likely to Bring Bird Flu Virus to US

AXcess News
12/06/06
By Staff

Washington - Poultry infected with H5N1 avian influenza pose the greatest risk of bringing the disease to the Americas, according to a new study by British and US researchers that challenges US efforts to detect flu in migratory birds.

Once on this continent, avian flu is likely to spread to migratory birds that will cross US borders - but the greatest risk will be birds from Central and South America that are not sampled in current wild-bird testing, the researchers said.

The study, to be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, employs a complex analytical method that compares the migratory routes of wild bird species thought to be the main reservoirs of avian flu with data on legal trade in poultry and wild birds and avian-flu gene sequences deposited in the public database GenBank.

Plotting those pieces of data against each other allowed the researchers to hypothesize whether migratory birds, wild bird trade, or poultry were responsible for H5N1 influenza's past spread across the globe, as well as to model its possible future paths.

Heading their conclusions: The combination of poultry trade and bird migrations allowed the virus to spread much farther than either would have allowed on its own.

Heading their predictions: The greatest threat to the continental United States will be the arrival of avian flu in Central and South America - where poultry trade is less restricted than in North America - via live poultry imports from countries where avian flu has affected either domesticated or wild birds. Strict regulation of poultry trade across US borders will not be adequate protection, they concluded.

Full Story:
http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=12251

[forman]

hey to you all the animal lovers.
i have a dog i like him as much as you can love dog.
but in my childhood i use to ride on horses. and i'm teeling you guys can not undrestand relationship with animals till this kind of expireince.
more about it you can find here horsesring.com (http://www.horsesring.com) and my advice... give it a shot... and all born new world will open up for you...
forman

[Its just me]

hey to you all the animal lovers.
i have a dog i like him as much as you can love dog.
but in my childhood i use to ride on horses. and i'm teeling you guys can not undrestand relationship with animals till this kind of expireince.
more about it you can find here horsesring.com (http://www.horsesring.com) and my advice... give it a shot... and all born new world will open up for you...
forman

Bumping to get beyond the sick posting porn.