Cat dies of bird flu after eating infected frozen food as US fights H5N1 spread in 8 states

An Oregon house cat died after eating pet food that tested positive for bird flu, Oregon authorities said, prompting a recall of raw frozen pet food that was sold nationwide.

Northwest Naturals, a pet food company based in Portland, Oregon, said Tuesday it had voluntarily recalled one batch of its two-pound Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after it tested positive for the virus. The product was sold through distributors in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, as well as Canada’s British Columbia.

“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food,” Oregon Department of Agriculture State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said in a Tuesday news release.

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“This cat was strictly an indoor cat; it was not exposed to the virus in its environment, and results from the genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and infected cat were exact matches to each other," Dr. Scholz further said.

The recalled product is packaged in two-pound plastic bags with “best if used by” dates of May 21, 2026, and June 23, 2026. The company and Oregon authorities said that consumers who bought the recalled product should throw it away immediately and contact the place of purchase for a refund.

No human cases of bird flu have been linked to the incident, but those who were in contact with the cat are being monitored for flu symptoms, Oregon authorities said.

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More than 60 people in eight states have been infected, with mostly mild illnesses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. One person in Louisiana has been hospitalised with the nation’s first known severe illness caused by the virus, health officials said last week.

So far, the CDC has confirmed one human case of bird flu in Oregon. The person was linked to a previously reported outbreak at a commercial poultry operation and fully recovered after experiencing mild illness, according to a November news release from the Oregon Health Authority.

In late October, the US Department of Agriculture announced that a pig at a backyard farm in Oregon was found to have bird flu, marking the first detection of the virus in US swine.