Cats infected with H5N1 virus?

A dead cat in Germany has just tested positive for H5N1 virus. The German Federal Animal Health Research Institute will conduct further tests to see if the H5N1 strain of cats is a strain of H5N1 that could kill people.

Cats are infected with H5N1 virus. Photo: A baby playing with cats in Thailand (Photo: VNN) German Federal Animal Health Research Institute (ie Friedrich Loeffler Institute) said the cat was found on Ruegen Baltic Sea - the area was detected H5N1 virus causing bird flu in the middle of this month.

According to Thomas Mettenleiter, director of the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, cats can become infected with bird flu if they eat sick birds. For the first time, cats were found to be infected with bird flu in Asia in 2004.

Recently, some large cats in Asian zoos have died after eating infected birds.

On December 28, the Bavarian State Environmental, Health and Consumer Protection Agency (southern Germany) said two wild birds in the state tested positive for the H5N1 virus. Bavaria is the fifth state in 16 states in Germany that have been attacked by bird flu.

Minh Thuong