If you have pets, we strongly recommend you avoid four things to protect them from getting bird flu.
By now we're sure you've heard about the H5N1 virus, which causes bird flu. You may have even heard about cases of infection in humans, particularly those who work on farms. However, the H5N1 'bird flu' virus can also infect dogs, cats and a host of other mammals. Illness varies from mild to fatal.
We want to make sure you know how to protect your pets by avoiding four things:
* Unpasteurized "raw" milk – Right now is definitely not a good time for raw milk as it can expose your animal to the H5N1 virus. In fact, we recommend avoiding all milk because of lactose intolerance, but we know some people do offer their pets milk or cream.
However, due to severe illness and death in cats who get bird flu, we recommend that you only use pasteurized milk at this time to eliminate the risk. Any milk you use must be pasteurized to eliminate the risk. Pasteurization is safe. The pasteurization process involves heating a liquid to a high temperature for a short amount of time, which kills harmful microbes without affecting taste or nutrition.
* Raw beef or chicken – Foods which involve raw (or undercooked) chicken or beef may include the meat of exposed cows or chickens. There's no way to know whether the cow or chicken has been exposed. There are no studies showing the superiority of raw food diets, but again, we know that raw meat diets are popular. Multiple raw food diets have been recalled due to bird flu. Cooking will kill the virus. We recommend that, and that you utilize strong kitchen and food hygiene practices with any raw meat.
* Freeze Dried or Dehydrated beef or chicken – This one isn't as intuitive because often people think of dehydration as involving heat (which it can, technically), but the dehydration process does not involve heat in the same way that pasteurization does. Instead, dehydration is about removing moisture, which still leaves the meat capable of infecting your animal. The bottom line is: dehydration does not effectively kill viruses in food.
“If I want to preserve a virus in the lab, I freeze dry it,” says veterinary infectious disease expert, Dr. Scott Weese on the Worms and Germs blog. He also lays out an excellent case to avoid rawhide, bones, pigs ears and similar chew toys and treats aside from any bird flu risk, due to other infectious diseases.
* Sick or dead wild birds – Particularly during fall migration (October through March). Limiting cats out door activities to bird-proof enclosures is ideal, but not always doable. California West Nile bird monitoring program requests that you report any dead birds (for pick up and testing). They also request that you carefully monitor dogs on walks, and keep cats indoors.
Those are the four big things to avoid, and for indoor animals, that's probably all you need to worry about at home regarding bird flu.
For some folk, avoiding these four things may not be sufficient to protect your animal from the H5N1 virus. If you work or live near livestock, or even have backyard birds, you may want to take additional precautions to protect your pets.
If you don't have a backyard chicken coop, but you do have a robust bird feeder, bird bath, or other means of encouraging birds to congregate, you may also want to consider other ways to protect your pets and your family. It may come down to choices and risk mitigation. When the news of this epic bird flu outbreak first broke, we posted a heads-up with several solid resources for people to learn more.
We are continuing to monitor this fast changing situation, with our scientific eyes focused on trustworthy data sources.
All that said, if you're not exposed to lots of birds or other people's animals, it's a much simpler story. Just don't feed your pets raw (unpasteurized) milk, or let them eat raw, undercooked, freeze dried or dehydrated meat. If you have any questions or want to consult your veterinarian, please do not hesitate to reach out.