Second US company recalls pet food as bird flu spreads to cats through tainted meat

As the bird flu outbreak continues gaining force in the US, a second company selling raw pet food issued a voluntary recall after cats from two different households in Oregon contracted H5N1 from the tainted meat earlier this month.
Two more cats in different households in Washington state have tested positive for bird flu after eating the same brand of raw pet food nearly two weeks after the recall, officials announced on Wednesday. One cat was euthanized, while the other remains under veterinary care.
Two lots of the raw food, made by Wild Coast Raw, fall under the voluntary recall. It's not clear whether the new cases in Washington are linked to recalled lots or others.
Since 2022 in the US, nearly 100 domestic cats have tested positive for bird flu, which can be fatal, and it may be possible for cats to transmit the virus to humans.
On 6 February, Christine 'KikI' Knopp noticed one of her 11 cats was running a slight fever. Within days, two of her cats had to be euthanized, and a third was in an intensive care unit.
All of the cats that had eaten raw pet food would later test positive for bird flu. Only a male cat kept apart from the others and fed canned food stayed negative.
Knopp is an artist in Portland, Oregon, who breeds and shows Cornish Rex cats. She has fed raw food to all but the male cat for years, and watched recent notices about tainted raw pet food carefully. She believed the food from Wild Coast was being tested for H5N1.
'I've since learned, I don't think there's really a safe way to trust if someone says they're testing it,' she said.
Wild Coast did not respond to the Guardian's media inquiries about why the company waited a week to issue a voluntary recall after being notified of possible contamination, and whether it was reaching out to vendors and customers about the recall.
If Knopp had known, she would have 'immediately' switched to canned food – a move she now recommends to all cat owners who were feeding raw food they bought or made on their own.
'It is not safe,' she said. 'Immediately: do not feed raw poultry or raw chicken, raw any table scraps, to cats currently – not even raw eggs.'
Raw milk is similarly risky, since milk can contain enormous amounts of virus, and raw beef has also been found to harbor H5N1.
'Especially right now, feeding raw food is just all risk,' said Steve Valeika, a small-animal veterinarian with a public health background.
H5N1 joins a host of other pathogens – including salmonella, E coli, campylobacter, listeria and toxoplasmosis – that have been associated with raw pet food.
One of the most unnerving parts for Knopp: her cats never displayed the classic symptoms of respiratory infections, like congestion. Some of the cats had fevers, rapid breathing and eyelid swelling, and one eventually had difficulty walking – a sign of neurological impairment.
But nothing pointed to influenza until X-rays revealed two of the cats with rapid breathing had developed severe pneumonia. That's when they tested for bird flu.
'Your average person probably wouldn't take them to the vet with a minor fever that comes and goes,' Knopp said. 'Your average person might not notice a sudden increase of breath rate, especially for a cat that's maybe more reclusive. So I wonder how many cases are also under-reported.'
Knopp was concerned that she might become infected and spread the virus herself.
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'I don't want to be known as 'Bird Flu Mary',' she said. Her local health department conducted daily symptom check-ins, she started wearing face masks when she went out in public, and she requested a test to see if she had gotten sick. The result was negative for influenza A and B.
In 2016, cats in a New York City shelter transmitted H7N2 to at least one person.
'We know that cats can at least transmit another strain of bird flu directly to people,' Valeika said. 'I do think these cats potentially present some risk to humans. We don't have any idea how big that risk is, but it's definitely one that should be taken seriously until we know better.'
It's not clear how tainted poultry is entering the raw pet food supply.
All facilities processing meat for humans are inspected by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
While some meat intended for pets flows through FSIS-inspected facilities, 'obviously, a great deal of protein is produced outside of FSIS-inspected facilities and is never intended for human consumption', said Eric Deeble, deputy under-secretary for marketing and regulatory programs at the USDA, on 16 January during the last call health officials held with reporters.
US officials were investigating whether any of the H5-positive pet products had gone through such a facility, he said, though no results have been released to the public yet.
'Birds from affected flocks that are depopulated as part of USDA's efforts to control H5N1 are not permitted in any food product at all,' Deeble said.
Valeika added that he had 'no good idea as to why we're seeing so many sick birds making it into the [pet] food supply – because this must just be the tip of the iceberg'.
There are other steps pet owners can take to protect animals, and themselves, from bird flu, Valeika said: don't let cats outside, and don't let dogs hunt or play with birds, including in ponds and lakes frequented by migratory birds. Mice and rats, especially near dairy and poultry farms, have also tested positive for H5N1.
Knopp has been posting about her experiences and holding 'ask me anything' sessions about cats and bird flu on social media.
'I've channeled a lot of grief into work and into education,' she said. For the two cats who were euthanized, she said, 'their death gets to mean something. It can save other animals. It can save some people grief.'

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