Posted on 02/28/2006 6:26:32 PM PST by Mother Abigail
Dead cat found with bird flu in Germany
BERLIN, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A dead cat found in Germany was infected with a form of the H5N1 bird flu virus, officials said on Tuesday, the first such case in the country and one which may fuel public fears over the disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and disease experts said the case probably did not increase the risk to humans from a virus which has killed at least 93 people since late 2003.
But officials in parts of Germany where bird flu has been discovered advised owners to keep their cats indoors and one expert said cat to human transmission could not be ruled out.
Germany's Federal Research Institute for Animal Health said it was still conducting tests to see whether the virus was the deadly strain which has led to sickness and fatalities among humans in Turkey and Asia.
The cat was found at the weekend on the island of Ruegen off Germany's northern coast, where the virus was first identified in birds earlier this month, the institute said.
Till Backhaus, the region's agriculture minister, said the cat's owner noticed the animal behaving strangely and informed local officials when it died the following day.
The discovery may increase concern that the virus could spread to other species in Europe as it has in a number of cases in other parts of the world.
"It has been known for some time that cats can become infected by eating infected birds," Thomas Mettenleiter, the institute's president said in a statement.
A number of big cats in Asian zoos have died after being fed infected birds and domestic cats have been shown to be particularly vulnerable to the disease, the institute said.
It added there had so far been no known case of a human becoming infected by a cat.
The WHO said the case of the dead cat in Germany had not raised its concern about the threat to human health.
"We know cats can be infected. We know H5N1 is capable of infecting a wide diversity of mammals. We are not exactly sure what it means for human health, but I don't think it raises WHO concerns," spokeswoman Maria Cheng said.
"KEEP CATS INDOORS"
Bird flu has led to the culling or deaths of some 200 million birds since late 2003. In poultry flocks it can cause sudden severe disease, rapid contagion and a mortality rate that can approach 100 percent within 48 hours.
Although essentially an animal disease, humans can contract the virus through direct contact with sick poultry.
Albert Osterhaus, a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands who has conducted research into the virus in cats, said he was not surprised by the case.
"Cat to human transmission is theoretically possible and not to be excluded. We have seen cat-to-cat transmission in laboratory experiments.
"It is not a surprise. We knew for sure that cats can get infected. The cat caught the disease most probably by eating an infected bird."
"People should keep their cats inside in regions where the disease was found," Osterhaus told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Anna Mudeva in Amsterdam)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28468688.htm
I'm on pins and needles waiting to hear what ZZ Top has to say about the issue.
How come that works for cats and not for, say, dogs? Larger mass?
Correct!
(he's the one who was out a little later than the others last night....see those dark circles around his eyes? :o)
And fava beans!
I thought of a perpetual motion machine.
You take a slice of buttered bread and attach it to the a cat's back - butter side up.
Then you drop the cat - buttered bread and all. It will spin forever because cats always land on their feet and buttered bread always lands butter-side down.
Does anyone know a good patent lawyer?
Works for me! I don't recall whether the Natural History article was more what-if conjecture or if it included an actual analysis of available data. It was an end-of-magazine article which often were more folk lore than a peer reviewed study.
I am appalled. I wonder what happens when you do the same experiment on Natural History Magazine researchers.
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