The CDC stop publishing data on bird flu infections in animals back in July.
The FDA issued a warning this week after health officials discovered that a cat who became ill and had to be euthanized was likely infected by the same strain of bird flu that was discovered in raw cat food eaten by the household pet. It’s the first documented case of a cat being put down over links to consuming cat food infected with bird flu since the spring, when it was happening more frequently in the U.S.
The FDA identified and tested retail samples of RAWR Raw Cat Food Chicken Eats in San Francisco, California, with a sell-by date of 09/18/26. Both tested positive for Influenza A Virus, and H5N1 bird flu was found in one of the samples, according to a press release from the FDA.
The USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratories tested the deceased cat, confirming it had bird flu, and used subsequent whole genome sequencing (WGS) to determine that the raw pet food “originated from a common source of contamination.”
From the FDA news release:
WGS results also indicated that H5N1 from all three samples were within the same WGS cluster, indicating relatedness.
