#17,504
Overnight there are literally dozens of media reports of unusual cat deaths across Poland due to an as-yet unidentified cause. Most appear to be `echo' reports, based on a limited number of incidents.
While many causes are possible - including deliberate or accidental poisonings - with recent reports of avian flu affecting cats in the United States, Canada and France, media speculation is running high.
While a hyperbole warning is in effect, a few link to (Polish Language) reports include:
Disturbing signals from all over Poland! The course is acute, "death within 24 hours." The Chief Veterinary Officer comments
Cats die en masse in Poland. "No treatment has any effect
Cat plague in Poland. Veterinarians (so far) helpless
The primary source for these reports appears to be a combination of anecdotal reports from across Poland, and an alert issued on Facebook by SpecVet - Specjalistyczne Przychodnie Weterynaryjne (SpecVet - Specialist Veterinary Clinics) which operates at two locations in Warsaw.
A translation of a portion of this alert reads:
For several days in Poland, there have been several cases of illness in cats with neurological and respiratory symptoms.
Disease symptoms such as:
- hyperglycaemia
- dementia
- stiffness of the limbs
- shortness of breath
- anisocoria
- pupils that do not react to light
- convulsions
- seizure attacks
- decrease in saturation
- hypokalaemia
- elevated AST and CK blood parameters
should be urgently consulted with a veterinarian.
Due to the threat posed by this disease, please exercise extreme caution. Do not go for walks with cats, limit contact with raw pork and poultry meat, do not allow contact with wild birds.
Currently, no treatment is effective. There is a high mortality rate, and both young and healthy animals as well as old or sick ones get sick.
#specvet #attention #vet #alert #dangerous #weterynarzwarszawa #news
Depending upon the source, the number of cats affected range from `several', to `many'. So far, I've seen no hard numbers published.
Although the combination of respiratory and neurological symptoms are generally consistent with avian H5 infection in mammals (Preprint: Pathology Of HPAI H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in Wild Terrestrial Mammals in the United States in 2022), thus far we've seen no laboratory evidence supporting that cause.
Poland's Chief Veterinary Officer is being quoted in the media as saying:
– At the moment, there is no evidence, in particular no laboratory results, that could support the claim that the symptoms described in the media, observed in cats, result from infection with the avian influenza virus and occurred after eating raw meat of any species of slaughter animal, legally traded and obtained in approved slaughterhouses where they underwent ante- and post-slaughter inspections.
Hopefully necropsies and laboratory analyses are ongoing, and we'll learn more in the days ahead.
Up until twenty years ago, cats were thought largely immune to influenza A viruses, but that perception changed after hundreds of captive tigers (and other large cats) died in Southeast Asia after being fed raw poultry contaminated with the H5N1 virus (see HPAI H5: Catch As Cats Can).For the next dozen years we saw sporadic feline infections with H5, and in 2016 we saw another avian virus - H7N2 - sweep through hundreds of cats in animal shelters in New York City, while also infecting several workers (see J. Virology: Virulence Of A Novel H7N2 Virus Isolated From Cats In NYC - Dec 2016).
Although the risk of contracting HPAI from a companion animal is considered very low, it is not zero.
Which is why the CDC, and other public health agencies around the world, have issued guidance to pet owners on how to best protect their animals from undo exposure (see Bird Flu in Pets and Other Animals).