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#18,373
Last week New Jersey reported 6 cats on a single property infected with H5N1, and today the New York City Health Department has announced they are investigating 2 separate households with H5 infected cats.
The announcement (see below), which was posted on FluTrackers by Pathfinder, provides no additional details, but does warn people about the dangers of feeding cats raw milk/food and letting them roam outdoors.
First, the DOH statement, after which I'll return with a bit more.
As of Wednesday of this week the USDA had listed 115 domestic cats infected with HPAI H5 across the nation, although that is thought to be a significant undercount. Feral cats are unlikely to be tested for the virus, and we've seen reports of household pets that died, but were never tested.
Most reports have come from the Western states, but in recent weeks we've seen a growing number cases reported from both the Midwest and the East.
Although the CDC continues to rank the risk to general public from avian flu as low, they do provide very specific guidance to pet owners on how to limit their risk of infection from the virus (see What Causes Bird Flu in Pets and Other Animals).
