Bird flu kills more than half the big cats at a Washington sanctuary

[usonian]

Not sure if anyone posted this. Reason for concern.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/25/us/bird-flu-washington-cats-cases/index.html

Bird flu has been on the rise in Washington state and one sanctuary was hit hard: 20 big cats – more than half of the facility’s population – died over the course of weeks.

“We thought we were doing everything we could to avoid anything like this from happening,” the center’s director and cofounder Mark Mathews told CNN. “The cats are pretty well split up into 30- by 40-foot habitats.”

It is currently unknown exactly how the big cats contracted bird flu, but Mathews said the first death occurred around Thanksgiving.

The 20 animals that died include: five African servals, four bobcats, four cougars, two Canada Lynxes, one Amur-Bengal tiger mix and other species of big cats.

Seems small for a wild animal preserve.

Found on Hacker News, with some more links.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42512772

Edit to add:
I posted a link to the Scientific American article (archived) earlier.
How the U.S. Lost Control of Bird Flu, Setting the Stage for Another Pandemic

As the bird flu virus moved into cows and people, sluggish federal action, deference to industry and neglect for worker safety put the country at risk

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219843728

[wnylib]

1. All species of cats are vulnerable to flu viruses, including domestic pet cats.

Cats are also vulnerable to the coronavirus responsible for covid. Some domestic cats caught it during the pandemic. Usually their cases were milder than human cases.

This avian flu H5N1 is more lethal to cats than covid. Good idea to keep pets inside, away from birds and other wild animals that might be infected with the virus.

Human cases have been mild until recently when one person developed a severe case and is hospitalized. The report that I read said that he had other, contributing health problems.

So far, H5N1 is not passing from human to human. Infected people are getting it from close contact with infected animals, mostly chickens and cows on farms or from drinking raw milk. But, if it mutates to a form that can be transmitted from one person to another, we might see another viral pandemic.

[slightlv]

2. Just heartbreaking. May Bast ease their way.

[StarryNite]

3. This is terribly sad and scary.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. My guess is that the H1N1 bird flu could be spread to

the wild cat sanctuary via pigeons. They're everywhere. And they abundantly leave their droppings.