The nationwide bird flu outbreak is killing more L.A. County cats.
There’s now been four confirmed cases, L.A. County public health officials told LAist Thursday, and they’re investigating three possible others in felines from a separate household.
Dr. Sharon Balter, director of the Division of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said no L.A. County residents have gotten bird flu, and there’s no evidence of person-to-person spread, but there’s still a low risk.
“ We at the health department are definitely following this outbreak, which is primarily in birds and cattle right now, very, very closely,” she said. “We really want to encourage people not to handle sick or dead birds unless they’re wearing a mask and gloves, and also to always consume pasteurized milk.”
How we got here
The four infected cats were from one household and drank raw milk linked to a recall.
Their symptoms included loss of appetite, fever, and neurologic signs. The cats later died after those symptoms got more severe.
Dr. Maria Pyrdek, Pasadena Humane’s chief veterinarian, told LAist the neurologic symptoms are the number one sign you see in birds, and are now being reported in cats.
“ It might be something really small, like small twitches, maybe an eye is twitching, a head is tremoring back and forth, and then those will progress to more and more severe signs,” she said. “Difficulty walking or balancing, sort of stumbling, that, like, looking drunk appearance, maybe not picking up their paws when they’re walking.”
Public health officials announced Wednesday that they’re…
Read the full article here
