Massive death of big cats in Washington sanctuary: bird flu attacks predators

Twenty big cats, including a half-Bengal tiger and four cougars, died at a shelter in Washington state between November and December after contracting bird flu. The New York Times reports with reference to the director of the institution, UNN reports.

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“We've never seen anything like this before, usually they die of old age,” said Mark Matthews, founder and director of the Wildcat Protection 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 in November among pumas when several cats began to have pneumonia-like symptoms. A few days later, other species also began to fall ill.

On November 23, the first cat, a cougar, died, and several others began to deteriorate in health 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 was difficult to determine how it entered the territory. 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 the sanitization process, which could take several months.

“We have to go through and disinfect every enclosure... Any straw or organic material has to be removed, packed and burned, then disinfected again. After that, we need to let everything sit for a few weeks,” Matthews said.

Shelter workers wear protective clothing and masks and disinfect their shoes to prevent the spread of viral particles.

Cats are particularly vulnerable to avian influenza. A new version of the H5N1 avian influenza virus emerged in 2020 and is spreading rapidly 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 avian influenza among “numerous” wild birds this fall, and recently two cougars in another part of the state, in Klallam County, were confirmed to have been infected with the H5N1 virus.

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