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Bird Flu Found in Cat in Germany; Spreading in AfricaTuesday, February 28, 2006Read the full article: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000100&sid=aIBRiOY4t9Ws&refer=germany Bird Flu Found in Cat in Germany; Virus Is Spreading in Africa March 1 (Bloomberg) -- German authorities found the H5N1 avian influenza virus in a cat in an area of northern Germany where wild birds have died, as the virus spread in Africa. The cat, found over the weekend, was from the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, where Germany's first cases of bird flu were detected. The World Health Organization said domestic cats aren't considered a ``reservoir'' for the virus. ``There is no present evidence that domestic cats play a role in the transmission cycle of H5N1 viruses,'' the WHO said on its Web site. ``To date, no human case has been linked to exposure to a diseased cat. No outbreaks in domestic cats have been reported.'' Lethal bird flu reached the European Union last month with cases found in birds in Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Slovenia. The H5N1 virus has been detected in poultry farms in Nigeria. Neighboring Niger this week confirmed its first case of bird flu among domestic fowl while Kenya and Ethiopia, in eastern Africa, are investigating possible outbreaks. At least 93 of the 173 people known to have been infected with the H5N1 virus since late 2003 have died, mainly in Asia, the WHO said this week. The spread of the virus in birds creates more risk for human infection as people come into contact with poultry during slaughtering, plucking feathers, butchering or preparation for cooking. Studies on Cats Studies in 2004 showed that cats are able to transmit the H5N1 virus to other cats, the WHO said on its Web site. In December 2003, two tigers and two leopards at a zoo in Thailand, fed on fresh chicken carcasses, died and subsequent tests revealed H5N1 in tissue samples. The virus was detected in a clouded leopard that died in a Bangkok zoo in February 2004 and a tiger that died at the same zoo in March 2004, it said. ``Eating raw infected poultry was considered the most likely source of infection for the cats,'' the WHO said. Domestic cats can contract and spread avian flu, Thomas Mettenleiter, president of Germany's Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, said yesterday. It hasn't been proven that domestic cats are able to spread the virus to people, he said. Human infection couldn't be ruled out in cases of very close contact with a cat, he said. Bavaria yesterday became the fifth of Germany's 16 states to find the virus when two wild birds tested positive. Switzerland and Romania have also reported cases of the lethal bird flu virus in birds, while Swedish officials yesterday said they found two infected wild ducks and are checking to see if it was the deadly H5N1 form of the illness. A total of 43 countries are restricting or banning poultry imports from France on concerns about the bird flu virus, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a statement yesterday by the French Trade Ministry. The virus was first found in a farm with 11,000 turkeys in eastern France, the government said on Feb. 25. It was the first time the disease was detected in farm animals in the European Union. Niger, Ethiopia Niger became the 16th country to confirm an avian-flu outbreak last month, doubling the number of nations reporting infections since 2003. Kenyan authorities are testing hundreds of dead chickens dumped in the capital Nairobi. Ethiopia sent samples from a poultry farm to an Italian laboratory for testing, Reuters reported yesterday, citing the country's Ministry of Health. In Asia, almost 200 million domestic poultry have died or been culled to contain the virus's spread, costing affected countries about $10 billion, according to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. To contact the reporters on this story: Claudia Rach in Berlin at crach1@bloomberg.net; Jason Gale in Abuja, Nigeria, at j.gale@bloomberg.net Last Updated: February 28, 2006 22:48 EST |