Cat and dog owners have actually been cautioned by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to prevent feeding their family pets a particular food – raw chicken. It follows lots of cats in Poland passed away following being contaminated with lethal bird influenza.
In light of bird influenza cases abroad, DEFRA has actually informed animal owners they must stop their cats and dogs from going near wild birds. Common garden birds are thought to bring a lower danger of bird influenza than waterfowl in parks and wetlands.
The UK is presently experiencing its worst ever break out of bird influenza, and given that the very first cases of bird influenza in China and Hong Kong in 1997, the infection has actually spread out worldwide, triggering the death of over 410 million birds. In 2022 alone, more than 131 million domestic poultry were lost due to death or culling in impacted farms
While people contracting bird influenza is fairly unusual, it can show to be major when it does send. Of 868 reported cases, 456 have actually been deadly. Despite this DEFRA, has actually been eager to tension that there is no proof that cats and dogs pass bird influenza on to people.
Talking to inews, a department representative said: “The latest proof recommends that the bird influenza infections we’re seeing flowing in birds do not spread out quickly to individuals, and there is no proof that animal cats or dogs are contaminated in the UK at present.” DEFRA likewise said that the danger to cats in this nation is in fact really low.
The 25 cats who passed away in Poland of bird influenza are believed to have actually captured the infection from consuming raw poultry, instead of contact with wild birds. While people getting the infection is unusual, there is no vaccine versus it and you can contract bird influenza in a variety of methods, these generally consist of:
- touching contaminated birds
- touching droppings or bed linen
- killing or preparing contaminated poultry for cooking
- stopping working to prepare poultry appropriately or consuming raw eggs
Though DEFRA isn’t asking animal owners to keep their animals inside your home as in Poland, they are prompting individuals to take affordable action to prevent their contact with poultry which might be contaminated.
