Avian flu epidemic: around twenty big cats died in a sanctuary

An outbreak of bird flu has killed around 20 wild big cats at a Washington state sanctuary within weeks.

The Wild Felid Advocacy Center in Washington confirmed, in a Facebook post, the deaths of 20 of their wild felines in December, due to the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Among the twenty dead animals are five African servals, four lynxes, four cougars, two Canadian lynxes, an Amur/Bengal tiger, an African Caracal, a Geoffroy cat, a Bengal cat and a Eurasian lynx.

“Cats are particularly vulnerable to this virus, which can cause subtle initial symptoms but progress rapidly, often leading to death within 24 hours from pneumonia,” they said.

“It's a nightmare,” center director and co-founder Mark Matthew told CNN affiliate KOMO. I never thought something like this would happen to us.”

He also specified that only 17 felines survived the avian flu, including four who are convalescing, out of a total of 37.

The non-profit sanctuary has placed itself in quarantine and will remain closed to the public “until further notice” to protect the remaining animals.

“This tragedy has deeply affected our team, and we are all grieving the loss of these incredible animals,” their Facebook post read.