[Travis McGee]

The sick cats were among 170 living at an animal shelter where the disease was detected in chickens last month, authorities said.

Were the cats infected without direct contact with the infected chickens? In that case, this is a major step. Until now, only consumers of infected birds have become sick.

[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.