Can bird flu kill your cat or spread to you? Experts issue advice after pet food recall
A US-based pet food brand has issued a recall of its raw cat food due to possible contamination with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1, commonly known as bird flu.
Wild Coast LLC, trading as Wild Coast Raw, announced the recall last weekend for its frozen Boneless Free Range Chicken Formula after concerns were raised by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The agency warned that the product could be contaminated with the deadly virus, further highlighting the growing risks associated with raw pet food.
While some cat owners prefer raw diets, most veterinarians caution against feeding pets uncooked meat due to the risk of harmful pathogens such as salmonella and listeria. With the continued spread of H5N1, these risks have become even more pressing in recent months.
READ MORE: New DWP plans for people on PIP with back, joint, and muscle health conditions due this month
READ MORE: People over State Pension age living on their own could be due £4,200 income boost
Although domestic cats may be natural hunters, they are not wild animals, and raw feeding comes with serious health concerns. While rare, cats can indeed fall ill, or even die, from bird flu after consuming contaminated raw meat or milk, according to Dr Jane Sykes, an expert in infectious diseases in cats and dogs at the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
Since 2022, more than 70 cats have been infected with H5N1, with many being barn cats that drank milk from infected cattle. A study published last summer found around half of the infected cats on a dairy farm in north Texas died from the virus.
Veterinarians strongly recommend sticking to conventional pet food as the safest option. Dr Bruce Kornreich, director of Cornell University's Feline Health Center, told NPR that he isn’t concerned about the virus in commercial pet food, as the heat from cooking, canning, and pasteurisation appears to neutralise H5N1.
Speaking to NPR, Sykes shared the same view, which is why she chooses to feed her indoor cat, Freckles, regular kibble. Bird flu in domestic cats remains rare, and these pets appear to be dead-end hosts for the virus, meaning they are very unlikely to transmit it to other animals or humans.
So far, no cases of cat-to-human transmission have been reported in the current H5N1 outbreak. The American Veterinary Medical Association considers the chances of such an event “extremely low, but not zero.”
Most human cases of H5N1 have involved farm workers exposed to infected poultry or cattle, with 67 confirmed cases in the US and one fatality.
The strain of bird flu currently circulating has not evolved to easily infect humans or spread among people. However, Sykes warned that bird flu viruses mutate over time, which raises concerns about potential adaptation.
When house cats contract H5N1 and then cuddle up to their owners, it creates more opportunities for the virus to adapt to a human host. Ian Gill Bemis, a PhD student studying avian influenza in cats at the University of Maryland, told NPR that he believes feeding cats raw food could increase this risk.
“I think there is a significantly high risk to public health that humans might become infected if large numbers of people are feeding their cats raw food at this particular point in time,” he said.
Although no cat-to-human transmission of H5N1 has been recorded, a similar event has happened with another bird flu strain. In 2016, a New York City veterinarian caught H7N1 after close contact with infected cats. She experienced mild symptoms and recovered quickly.
While Sykes noted that H7N1 is very different from H5N1, the case proves that feline-to-human transmission of avian influenza is possible. Despite the risks, Kornreich argued that pet owners should not be vilified for choosing raw diets. “These people really want to do what’s right for their cat,” he says.
