On New Yr’s Eve the Los Angeles County Division of Public Well being (LADPH) urged pet homeowners to keep away from feeding pets uncooked meals after checks discovered hyperlinks between a cat’s H5 avian flu sickness and uncooked meals bought by Monarch Uncooked Pet Meals at California farmer’s markets.
The announcement marks the second uncooked pet meals firm tied to associated sicknesses in cats. Final week, Oregon officers reported related findings involving one sort of frozen uncooked pet meals from Northwest Naturals that was marketed nationally.
In its assertion, the LADPH mentioned H5 avian flu from product samples of Monarch Uncooked Pet Meals has been present in an investigation into an sickness involving a home cat with a lab-confirmed an infection after consuming the product. 4 different cats from the identical family have presumed H5 infections after consuming the identical meals.
Officers mentioned an investigation continues to be underneath method into deadly sicknesses of 4 cats from a separate family that had drunk uncooked milk.
No human infections have been recognized in individuals who have been uncovered to sick cats within the two households.
In accordance with Monarch Uncooked Pet Meals’s web site, the meals was bought at farmer’s markets in Laguna Niguel, Orange, San Jacinto, and Fountain Valley. The corporate mentioned its uncooked meat pet meals is constituted of uncooked floor rooster composed of muscle, organ meat, pores and skin, fats, and bone and that it’s sourced from human-grade free-range poultry raised within the San Joaquin Valley.
Virus strikes extra poultry in 8 states, cows in California
In the meantime, over the previous few days, the US Division of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Well being Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed extra H5N1 poultry outbreaks throughout eights states, together with business broiler, turkey, and egg-laying farms.
Michigan has two extra outbreaks at turkey farms in Ottawa County, with Arkansas, Mississippi, and Nebraska all reporting occasions involving broiler farms. California, laborious hit by each poultry and dairy cattle outbreaks, has two extra affected farms, one a layer farm and the opposite a yard flock.
4 different states—Michigan, Idaho, Tennessee, and Kansas—reported new H5N1 detections in yard flocks.
For the reason that outbreaks started in February 2022, the occasions have led to the lack of practically 130 million birds, hitting poultry flocks in all 50 states. Within the ultimate months of 2024, outbreaks started ramping up in October in reference to wild birds migrating south, and outbreaks in poultry have risen steadily since then.
APHIS additionally confirmed two extra H5N1 detections in dairy cattle, each in California, elevating the state’s affected herds to 699 and the nationwide whole to 915 throughout 16 states.
FDA launches uncooked milk cheese testing
In different H5N1 developments, the US Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) on December 30 introduced a plan to check aged uncooked cow milk cheese for H5N1. The objectives are to evaluate if stay virus is current within the cheese and to take follow-up actions, if wanted, to handle any contamination.
In the USA, cheese constituted of uncooked milk should be aged for a minimum of 60 days to chop the chance of any pathogens that could be current. Pattern assortment was anticipated to start as quickly as the top of December 2024 and be accomplished by the top of March 2025.
Ohio points waterfowl alert
Lastly, the Ohio Division of Pure Assets on December 31 introduced it has collected and submitted samples from a number of lifeless wild birds to evaluate for extremely pathogenic avian flu. The fowl deaths have been reported from 11 totally different counties and primarily consisted of Canada geese, trumpeter swans, and a mallard.
Officers urged the general public to keep away from dealing with sick or lifeless birds. Wildlife departments in different states lately issued related warnings, together with Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Louisiana.
