{"id":7913,"date":"2024-06-17T09:05:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T09:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=7913"},"modified":"2024-06-17T09:26:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T09:26:07","slug":"bird-flu-is-infecting-cats-and-the-occasional-dog-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=7913","title":{"rendered":"Bird Flu Is Infecting Cats (and the Occasional Dog). Here\u2019s What to Know."},"content":{"rendered":"
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A few \u201creasonable precautions\u201d can help people keep their pets safe from the H5N1 virus, experts say.<\/p>\n

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Over the past few months, a bird flu outbreak has spread swiftly through dairy cows in the United States, infecting more than 90 herds<\/a> in 12 states. Along the way, the virus has caused collateral damage in several other species, spreading from dairies to poultry farms and from cows into at least three farm workers<\/a>, who developed symptoms of mild illness.<\/p>\n

It has also caused mounting casualties in cats. On some dairy farms, sick or dead cats have provided an early signal that something was amiss. \u201cThey\u2019re a bit of a canary in a coal mine,\u201d Dr. Kammy Johnson, a veterinary epidemiologist for the Agriculture Department, said at a news briefing on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Since the dairy outbreak was first detected in late March, at least 21 cats<\/a> in nine states have caught the virus, according to the department, which recently began tracking the feline cases.<\/p>\n

Scientists have long known that cats are vulnerable to being infected by avian influenza, a group of flu viruses typically found in birds. In 2020, a new version of a bird flu virus, known as H5N1, emerged. It has spread rapidly around the world, infecting many wild birds and repeatedly spilling over into mammals, including cats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cDomestic cats are actually highly susceptible to avian influenza, and especially H5N1,\u201d said Kristen Coleman, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Maryland. \u201cBut there has been a recent uptick in domestic cat infections, a drastic uptick.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been sporadic reports of infected dogs, too.<\/p>\n

While bird flu infections of pets remain rare overall, they can be severe, especially in cats. \u201cIt results in very severe illness and oftentimes death,\u201d Dr. Coleman said. \u201cSo it\u2019s very serious, and it should be taken seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A few \u201creasonable precautions\u201d can help people keep their pets safe from the H5N1 virus, experts say.Over the past few months, a bird flu outbreak has spread swiftly through dairy cows in the United States, infecting more than 90 herds in 12 states. Along the way, the virus has caused collateral damage in several other species, spreading from dairies to poultry farms and from cows into at least three farm workers, who developed symptoms of mild illness.It has also caused mounting casualties in cats. On some dairy farms, sick or dead cats have provided an early signal that something was amiss. \u201cThey\u2019re a bit of a canary in a coal mine,\u201d Dr. Kammy Johnson, a veterinary epidemiologist for the Agriculture Department, said at a news briefing on Thursday.Since the dairy outbreak was first detected in late March, at least 21 cats in nine states have caught the virus, according to the department, which recently began tracking the feline cases.Scientists have long known that cats are vulnerable to being infected by avian influenza, a group of flu viruses typically found in birds. In 2020, a new version of a bird flu virus, known as H5N1, emerged. It has spread rapidly around the world, infecting many wild birds and repeatedly spilling over into mammals, including cats.\u201cDomestic cats are actually highly susceptible to avian influenza, and especially H5N1,\u201d said Kristen Coleman, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Maryland. \u201cBut there has been a recent uptick in domestic cat infections, a drastic uptick.\u201dThere have been sporadic reports of infected dogs, too.While bird flu infections of pets remain rare overall, they can be severe, especially in cats. \u201cIt results in very severe illness and oftentimes death,\u201d Dr. Coleman said. \u201cSo it\u2019s very serious, and it should be taken seriously.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7915,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7913"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7916,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7913\/revisions\/7916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}