Cats & H5N1

[Guest guest]

While the Jakarta Animal Aid Network's attempt to promote cat

TNR in Jakarta instead of mass killing is laudable, there are some

extremely inaccurate, inflammatory remarks about cats & H5N1 risk in

the article " Jakarta`s stray cat population potential health hazard. "

some of them apparently attributed to Karen Franken of JANN. I

 

In truth, the number of cats who have ever been confirmed to

have contracted H5N1 is very low, apparently only in the dozens

worldwide, and none are known to have shed the virus. Thus cats are

not considered a potential vector for transmitting H5N1.

 

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control,

working for the EU, and the International Society for Infectious

Diseases, serving more than 20,000 public health veterinarians

worldwide, after extensive study dismissed the alleged potential for

cats spreading H5N1 in 2006, after which I summarized the evidence.

See below.

 

There has not been any significant change in the state of

scientific evidence about H5N1 and cats since then.

 

 

This statement from the Jakarta Post article actually inverts reality:

 

 

>there is no evidence that only migratory birds are responsible for

>the spread of the disease.

 

In fact, there is very little evidence that migratory birds

have anything to do with it, as the International Society for

Infectious Diseases has repeatedly cautioned.

 

The overwhelming preponderance of evidence is that H5N1 is

spread almost entirely by domestic fowl, and is moved from place to

place mainly by transportation of gamecocks -- a reality that the

Indonesian authorities are globally notorious for ignoring.

 

If Indonesia had taken the same measures to restrict traffic

in gamecocks that Thailand and Vietnam belatedly took more than five

years ago, Indonesia would probably not continue to lead the

universe in human H5N1 fatalities.

 

 

 

-------------------------

 

 

ANTARA Monday, February 8, 2010 18:49 WIB

 

Jakarta`s stray cat population potential health hazard

by Crystall Clancy

 

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Wild and stray cats are ubiquitous in

Indonesia`s capital of Jakarta, a sprawling metropolis inhabited by

12 million people.

 

And though most of the felines in the urban jungle show obvious signs

of suffering by lack of food, illness and neglect, they are

multiplying at a rate that may eventually pose a public health hazard.

 

The issue is not only the increase in number of this stray species,

but also the inhumane solutions municipalities utilize in an attempt

to control the car population in their areas, said Karin Franken,

co-founder of the Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN), over the

week-end at JAAN`s clinic in Kemang, South Jakarta.

 

Disease is rife among them, with recent studies uncovering the avian

flu (H5N1) virus residing in a large percentage of these cats. The

problem has spread from a national animal welfare issue to a global

health risk.

 

[EXCERPT]

 

Recent studies have revealed that cats can contract the avian

influenza virus and that there is no evidence that only migratory

birds are responsible for the spread of the disease. A study

conducted by the Indonesian Environment Information Center (PILI) in

Yogyakarta found that stray cats had caught the H5N1 virus through

contact with infected poultry at traditional markets. Scientists are

worried the virus will mutate into a form where it could spread

through human-to-human contact, which could trigger a global pandemic

capable of infecting millions of people in a short period of time.

 

 

-------------------

 

 

 

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

 

 

Risk of cats giving H5N1 to humans is small, says Euro Centre for

Disease Prevention & Control

 

ROTTERDAM, STOCKHOLM, LONDON-- " Cats could fuel bird flu

pandemic, " headlined the April 5 edition of The Times of London,

sparking similar headlines worldwide--but the risk is small,

responded the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in

Stockholm, Sweden, after reviewing the evidence.

" A distinction needs to be made, " reminded the European

Centre, " between species which can occasionally be infected by a

particular influenza, but who rarely transmit it, " such as cats,

" and those species in which it seems that the viruses are better

adapted and transmitted, " such as birds.

Cats were first known to be vulnerable to H5N1, the European

Centre response continued, in December 2003, " when a few leopards

and tigers died in a zoo in Thailand after being fed infected

poultry. " Later came " a much larger H5N1 outbreak in zoo tigers,

also in Thailand, who had been fed chicken carcasses. Over 140

tigers died or were euthanized. There was convincing evidence of

tiger to tiger transmission.

" Experimentally, " the European Centre acknowledged, " it has

been shown that domestic cats can be infected with H5N1 through

eating infected material, and can transmit influenza to other cats.

These experimentally infected cats, though limited in number, all

became seriously ill when infected, and did not seem to shed the

virus until they had symptoms. To date the only domestic cats who

have been conclusively shown to be infected have been those found ill

or dead in the intense epizootic of H5N1 in wild birds on Rugen

Island, " off the German coast, " in February 2006.

" There have been anecdotal reports of increased mortality in

cats during H5N1 outbreaks in other countries, " the European Centre

warned, " but these have not been confirmed by laboratory tests.

Unconfirmed reports of infections and deaths from H5N1 in cats

elsewhere should always be interpreted cautiously. A recent

preliminary report of infected cats in Austria was eventually not

confirmed. "

The Times article, by science correspondent Mark Henderson,

summarized a paper published in the April 6 edition of Nature by

virologist Albert Osterhaus and colleagues at the Erasmus Institute

in Rotterdam.

" As soon as the virus becomes endemic in wild birds or

poultry, it would be wise to realise that cats are susceptible, "

Osterhaus told Henderson. " As soon as you have birds that

become sick, cats are very effective at catching and eating them.

In endemic areas you should keep cats indoors and dogs on a lead. "

" Affected regions of Germany and France have already ordered

that cats be kept indoors, " Henderson reported, " but the [british]

Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not yet

said whether it would make similar provisions. "

 

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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