September 3, 2004

Study Claims Cats Can Spread Deadly Bird Flu

A study conducted in the Netherlands show that cats can catch and spread the bird flu virus. The disease has ravaged poultry and killed at least 26 people across East Asia in 2004.

Thijs Kuiken and colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, did the study after three cats and a zoo leopard living near sick poultry in Thailand were confirmed to have died of H5N1 in February 2004.

A tiger in the same zoo was sick with H5N1, but has since recovered. "Cats have never been observed to get sick from flu infection before," Kuiken said.

This is the first time cats have been known to get sick from flu. The discovery could mean that H5N1 virus has already acquired the ability to spread in some mammals.

Thus cats, and perhaps other animals, could possibly act as a vessel for the virus to further evolve into a human pandemic.