As Bird Flu Spreads, Man's Best Friends Get a Second Look

March 12, 2006 — -- Pet lovers around the world reacted with dread when a cat in Germany was discovered dead last month, a victim of bird flu. Alarmingly, tests confirmed that the cat had died of the H5N1 strain of the virus, a form known to be deadly to humans.

As panic set in, various news reports stated that animal shelters in some European countries were overwhelmed with healthy animals dropped off or abandoned by their owners. Several countries have enacted quarantine zones where avian flu has been discovered, and German officials are enforcing a "cat curfew," requiring owners to keep cats indoors in affected areas.

Is it merely panic, or are there serious risks to pets and to families with cats and other pets? Is there anything pet owners can do to protect their pets and themselves from disease?

Dr. James R. Richards, director of the Cornell Feline Health Center at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, N.Y., believes quarantines and curfews are a sensible preventive step.

"I don't think it's an overreaction at all," Richards said. "It is a concern on a number of different levels. Cats may play a role in transmission of the virus to humans," though he is quick to point out that there is currently no evidence that cats are a risk to humans.

The virus, Richards noted, has shown up in cats before. The H5N1 virus was discovered in tigers and leopards in a Thailand zoo as early as 2003. Household cats in Thailand have also died of the H5N1 virus, according to the World Health Organization.

Research conducted since these feline deaths has confirmed that cats can harbor the H5N1 virus and, of greater concern, can transmit the killer virus to other cats through respiratory secretions, feces or urine.

Many animals, including dogs, cats and other pets, can transmit viral or bacterial diseases to humans, either through direct contact with bodily secretions or through parasites like fleas. Examples of these zoonotic diseases include salmonellosis, bartonellosis (cat-scratch disease), tapeworm, roundworm, cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, toxoplasmosis and rabies.