Torie Bosch , 2025-04-16 08:30:00
In 2024, as zoos were hit hard by H5N1 bird flu, big cats were particularly affected: tigers, lions, a cheetah, and a panther all died after being infected with the same virus that has caused egg prices to skyrocket.
House cats are vulnerable to H5N1, too, as Meghan F. Davis, a veterinarian and epidemiologist with Johns Hopkins University, and co-authors recently wrote in a First Opinion essay. In this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” I spoke with Davis about the lack of surveillance of H5N1 in pets, why cats seem to be at such risk from the virus, why it’s so dangerous to give your pets raw milk and raw-meat pet food, and veterinary medicine’s key but often overlooked role in human health.
“Cats are not part of, for example, the surveillance structures that we have in place for people,” she told me. “We don’t invest nearly as much in veterinary research, whether it’s for clinical or public health benefit, as we do in human, which kind of makes some sense,” she acknowledged. But proximity to a sick animal can put people at risk — and as any cat owner knows, cats have a way of getting right up in your space. If we don’t understand H5N1 in cats, it will make it harder to combat it in humans. Davis is worried enough that she has closed her “catio” — a protective outdoor space for cats — for now so her animals won’t get exposed to avian flu by migrating birds.
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