At least 14 cats have recently died of bird flu. At least 14 cats in the United States have died of H5N1 bird flu since the virus was confirmed in dairy cows in late March. Cats are known to be highly vulnerable to this new strain of H5N1 bird flu. In 2023, nearly 40 cats died at two animal shelters in South Korea after eating contaminated cat food, and in Poland, more than a dozen cats died in an outbreak presumably caused by contaminated raw meat. In the United States, at least 27 cats have now been infected with H5N1 bird flu, including the 14 cases reported in recent weeks.
