For First Time, Flu Spreads From Birds

Yahoo News ^ | Melissa Eddy

[chilepepper]

So, if I don't add cats to my diet I'm in no more danger than I was before.

what a pity for you... you'll never be able to order chinese take out again.

[Monkey Face]

Right. Germany and Austria are two separate countries.

[Thebaddog]

Are we looking at Bird Flu hitting our shores in July or August of this year, or is it a multi-year issue? As in Bird-Flu hitting us in 07 or 08.

[presidio9]

I'm guessing SARS will probably hit us first.

[NYorkerInHouston]

Odds are bird flu will hit the US this year, resulting in poultry kills and people running away from eating chicken. It would probably be a multiyear issue.

As for when and where the it will develop easy transmissibility between people is anyone's guess and of course it may never accomplish that.

[Tall_Texan]

Teach them to feed on mice instead.

[U S Army EOD]

The question is did it spread from cat to cat or did they catch it from birds?

[U S Army EOD]

How do you know mice don't catch it from birds?

[Tall_Texan]

Mice don't eat birds so it will be a bit harder unless the mice are lapping up bird poop.

[griffin]

Pretty cruddy news write-up. She makes it sound like cat-to-cat transmission has occured. But she fails to directly state that. Sheesh.

[null and void]

We're all gonna die. Seriously.

I'm hoping to die laughing.

[Recovering Hermit]

We're all gonna die. Seriously.

That's basically a given.

It's how soon and how badly that worries me.

[Termite_Commander]

We're not sure how they got infected yet, but it's not just chicken consumers that have gotten this. Contact with feces, very close contact with infected birds (without eating them, I mean), contact with an object that touched an infected bird, and rare cases of human-to-human (and cat-to-cat) transmission have taken place.

[Max in Utah]

Think of it-- a world without cats!!!

Think of it-- a world overrun with rats!!!

[GladesGuru]

"It is better and safer for the cat and would stop the spread of this disease as well as others plus you don't have to worry about other problems like cars as well as cats attacking birds."

Let's not forget that keeping Kitty indoors also avoids waffle-kitty syndrome, if Kitty should wander onto a road.

[Termite_Commander]

Probably this year, from what Health and Human Services Secretary Leavitt has said.

It might already be in the Bahamas. There were some dead birds discovered there last week, but authorities conveniently found that the birds were probably too badly decomposed to be tested, so they concluded that they died from trauma.

If it is H5N1 down there, the virus should sporadically be in the US in short order. But we're not going to know whether that was H5N1 unless we see more bird deaths soon, and those birds get tested.

[Termite_Commander]

Waffle-Kitty Syndrome sounds like a hugh and series threat to outdoor kitties everywhere.

[vetvetdoug]

Cats getting the Avian Influenza? Sounds like opportunity to me. I guess every cloud has a silver lining somewhere.

[Moshikashitara]

You people seem to have missed this sentence of the article (or are ignoring it): The sick cats were among 170 living at an animal shelter where the disease was detected in chickens last month, authorities said.

Now, I don't know much about animal shelters, but from what I know, cats and other small pet-type animals are usually kept in cages or kennels. There isn't much reason to automatically suspect that the cats were kept close to the avian section of the shelter.

Not trying to rag on anyone, just pointing this out.

~Moshi-chan

[manwiththehands]

My cats laugh at bird flu.