Bird flu in raw cow milk kills more than half of cats on Texas farm

In a concerning case out of the US state of Texas, more than half of the cats at a dairy farm died after they drank raw milk from cows that tested positive for bird flu. The incident took place a month after the US Department of Agriculture reported the first confirmed case of bird flu in cows. 

Earlier this week, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report saying that a dozen domestic cats on a farm in Texas died after contracting a highly contagious strain of bird flu.

The cats on the Texas farm had been fed raw milk from cows that turned out to be infected with avian influenza. The report noted that a day after the cats were fed, they began getting sick. 

The cats’ eyes and noses began watering as they reportedly kept walking in circles, and their bodies grew stiff. Eventually, the felines lost their sight and coordination and died. 

“The cats were found dead with no apparent signs of injury and were from a resident population of 24 domestic cats that had been fed milk from sick cows,” the researchers wrote in their report published in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. 

This comes as the US is in the midst of a continued outbreak of bird flu after the virus first entered the country in late 2021. 

In March, the US Department of Agriculture reported the first confirmed case of bird flu ever identified among cows after several farms in the US states of Kansas and Texas were affected. 

Eventually, the virus was also detected on farms in Michigan, Idaho, and Ohio after the infected cows were transported. 

The sample collected from the brains and lungs of dead cats, according to the CDC report, suggested “high amounts of virus” in their bodies. 

Infected cows experience “nonspecific illness, reduced feed intake and rumination, and an abrupt drop in milk production,” but the cats developed a “fatal systemic influenza infection” after they were fed unpasteurised milk from the cattle, said the report.

“Although exposure to and consumption of dead wild birds cannot be completely ruled out for the cats described in this report, the known consumption of unpasteurised milk and colostrum from infected cows and the high amount of virus nucleic acid within the milk make milk and colostrum consumption a likely route of exposure,” wrote the team of researchers led by pathologist Eric Burrough.

Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that they found fragments of the bird flu virus in around 20 per cent of retail milk samples. 

However, they later said that pasteurised milk is safe and urged consumers to avoid drinking unpasteurised milk in light of the bird flu outbreak. 

Dairy herds in nine states have been infected with bird flu and at least one dairy farm worker also contracted the virus, reported Reuters. 

The CDC report also noted that the FDA has “indicated the commercial milk supply remains safe,” but also warned that the detection of influenza virus in “unpasteurised bovine milk is a concern because of potential cross-species transmission.”

(With inputs from agencies)