Avian flu is wreaking havoc… among felines. In a few weeks, this highly contagious infectious disease which initially affects birds killed twenty felines at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center, an animal sanctuary in Washington state, reports the BBC.
In a press release published on Facebook at the end of last week, the sanctuary specified that it was in quarantine and had closed its doors to the public in order to stem the spread of the epidemic. Half of the animals in the park were affected.
Among the twenty felines who have died since mid-November, we include a Bengal tiger, four cougars, lynxes, servals and several cats, a species particularly vulnerable to avian flu, details the press release.
“We have never experienced a situation like this. Usually they die of old age. It’s a pretty dangerous virus,” Mark Mathews, the director of the sanctuary, responded to the New York Times. Felines can catch this viral infection by ingesting a sick bird.
This year, the United States has been particularly hard hit by avian flu, which first spread to cattle in March and has already affected more than 60 people since April – one seriously. A child even tested positive in November.
Experts are concerned about the growing number of infected mammals, although cases in humans remain rare. They fear that high circulation could facilitate a mutation of the virus which would allow it to be transmitted from one human to another. In September and November, two people tested positive for avian flu in the United States, with no known contact with an infected animal.
