Cats died after drinking raw milk from bird flu-infected cows

Key Facts

Edited By Paula Cohen Updated on: April 30, 2024 / 5:40 PM EDT / CBS News Dairy cows to be tested for bird flu closely More dairy cows to be tested for bird flu after findings in grocery store milk 02:45 More than half of cats around the first Texas dairy farm to test positive for bird flu this spring died after drinking raw milk from the infected cows, scientists reported this week, offering a window into a toll the virus has taken during its unprecedented spread through the cattle industry.
Around 1 in 5 samples of milk the Food and Drug Administration checked from U.S. retailers tested positive for H5N1, though the agency said last week that studies so far show that pasteurization is working to kill off the virus in milk; only harmless fragments remained.
While the spread of the virus from cows to cats through raw milk is new, cats have long been known to scientists as one of the species especially vulnerable to severe disease from H5N1.
Department of Agriculture has said that deaths and neurological disease in cats have been "widely reported" around farms with outbreaks of the virus.