AMES, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is advising Iowa pet owners to keep their cats and dogs away from sick or deceased wild birds and animals. Pet owners should also discourage indoor and outdoor cats from hunting wildlife because of the ongoing threat posed by Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1 HPAI) circulating within wild and migratory birds.

The alert came to warn cat and dog owners, even though there is no report of the flu impacting canines. The big concern is for the health of cats. One cat was found to have symptoms in Hamilton County. The cat tested positive for the H5NI HPAI.

“Know that they can be affected and they’re actually very susceptible,” said Dr. Katie Rumsey, who serves as Assistant State Veterinarian. “They become very, very sick and unfortunately a lot of them will die from it and so we know that they could be infected, if they are drinking raw milk that was one of the first ways that we became aware of it.”

There also needs to be awareness of what cats might be eating.

“There’s also been a bunch of reports, especially out west in California and Oregon, of cats that consume raw pet food or raw meat and then they unfortunately will pass away from avian influenza,” said Rumsey. “We want to make sure that our cat owners are aware of what the risk is we have unfortunately had one case here in Iowa.”

She warns that cats, which may be hunters, are in danger if they encounter wild birds.

At the Iowa State Veterinary Medicine Small Animal Clinic, they have not had any reports of bird flu, but they are following reports in other states.

“We’ve actually had reports from multiple different states of cats on dairy farms dying, house cats dying or being affected from eating raw or undercooked diets,” said Dr. April Blong of the ISU Vet Med Clinic. “Being exposed to raw and un-pasteurized milk or being exposed because their owner has happened to work on dairy farms and stuff like that and so certainly there’s risks associated with dairy and dairy farms because we do know that cows can become infected.”

The Iowa Department of Agriculture has a list of tips for pet owners to keep pets safe from bird flu:

• Do not feed pets raw, undercooked, or unpasteurized frozen or freeze-dried milk, eggs, meat or organs.
• Cooking or heat-treating pet food to appropriate temperatures inactivates H5N1 HPAI.
• Freeze dried and frozen unpasteurized pet food is often considered raw and can pose a risk to pets.
• Keep your pet away from livestock including poultry and dairy cattle.
• Wash your hands and change your clothes after interacting with livestock and before interacting with pets.

“I would say, especially if there’s a bird, or some sort of waterfowl, whatever it is that’s down or acting abnormally or seems very weak. I would definitely try and keep my pets away from that if it all possible,” said Blong.

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