“Mass die-off of big cats at Washington sanctuary: Bird flu attacks predators 20 big cats, including a tiger and a cougar, have died from bird flu at a Washington state sanctuary. The reserve is closed for quarantine, large-scale disinfection of the territory is being carried out.”, — write on: unn.ua
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“We’ve never seen anything like this, usually they die of old age,” said Mark Matthews, founder and director of the Feral Cat Conservation Center in Shelton, Washington.
Three other cats recovered, and one remained in critical condition.
The reserve said on Friday that the facility is under quarantine and will be closed until further notice until disinfection is completed.
The virus began to appear among cougars in November, when several cats began to show symptoms similar to pneumonia. In a few days, other species also started to get sick.
On November 23, the first cat, a cougar, died, and the health of several others began to deteriorate in the following days. The last cat to die on December 13 was an African serval. Some cats shared a wall between their enclosures, but were not in direct contact.
Now there are only 17 cats left in the reserve.
He also noted that the shelter is working with officials to determine the source of the virus, although it has been difficult to determine how it entered the facility. It is possible that bird droppings got into the cats’ enclosures or that the meat used to feed them contained the virus, he added.
The shelter removed 8,000 pounds of food stored in the freezer to avoid further infections and began a sanitation process that could take several months.
“We have to go through and disinfect each enclosure … Any straw or organic material needs to be taken out, bagged and burned, then disinfected again. After that, everything has to sit for a few weeks,” Matthews said.
Shelter workers wear protective clothing and masks and disinfect their shoes to prevent the spread of virus particles.
Cats are particularly vulnerable to bird flu. A new version of the H5N1 bird flu virus appeared in 2020 and is rapidly spreading around the world, infecting birds and other mammals.
The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife reported earlier this month that it had confirmed cases of bird flu among “numerous” wild birds this fall, and two cougars in another part of the state, in Clallam County, were recently confirmed to be infected with the H5N1 virus.
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