Second US company recalls pet food as bird flu spreads to cats through tainted meat

As the bird flu outbreak continues gaining force in the US, a second company selling raw pet food issued a voluntary recall after cats from two different households in Oregon contracted H5N1 from the tainted meat earlier this month. Two more cats in different households in Washington state have tested positive for bird flu after eating the same brand of raw pet food nearly two weeks after the recall, officials announced on Wednesday. One cat was euthanized, while the other remains under veterinary care.

Two lots of the raw food, made by Wild Coast Raw, fall under the voluntary recall. It is not clear whether the new cases in Washington are linked to recalled lots or others. Since 2022 in the US, nearly 100 domestic cats have tested positive for bird flu, which can be fatal, and it may be possible for cats to transmit the virus to humans. On 6 February, Christine “Kiki” Knopp noticed one of her 11 cats was running a slight fever. Within days, two of her cats had to be euthanized, and a third was in an intensive care unit.

All of the cats that had eaten raw pet food would later test positive for bird flu. Only a male cat kept apart from the others and fed canned food stayed negative. Knopp is an artist in Portland, Oregon, who breeds and shows Cornish Rex cats. She has fed raw food to all but the male cat for years, and watched recent notices about tainted raw pet food carefully. She believed the food from Wild Coast was being tested for H5N1.

If Knopp had known, she would have “immediately” switched to canned food – a move she now recommends to all cat owners who were feeding raw food they bought or made on their own. “It is not safe,” she said. “Immediately: do not feed raw poultry or raw chicken, raw any table scraps, to cats currently – not even raw eggs.” Raw milk is similarly risky, since milk can contain enormous amounts of virus, and raw beef has also been found to harbor H5N1. “Especially right now, feeding raw food is just all risk,” said Steve Valeika, a small-animal veterinarian with a public health background.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/cats-bird-flu