SCIENCE Report: Avian flu can infect pet cats

So far, there is no evidence human have contracted the virus from cats.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- As a deadly bird flu continues to devastate Asia, a new study suggests another group is vulnerable to the virus: pet cats.
Raising concerns that avian influenza could become a worldwide pandemic in other mammals -- especially humans -- researchers in the Netherlands reported that domestic cats can catch the virus by eating infected birds or coming into contact with another sick feline.
The implication is that if the Garfields and Felixes of the world can come down with the lethal H5N1 virus and pass it to one another, other animals and their owners probably could, too.
People in Asia have gotten sick and died from the same avian influenza virus, but they appear to have been exposed while handling contaminated birds. As yet, there is no evidence that humans have contracted the virus from other mammals, including cats.
"The fact that cats can become infected with H5N1 virus means that cats form an opportunity for the virus ... to adapt to mammals," including humans, said the study's lead author, Dr. Thijs Kuiken, in an e-mail. "If that happens, it might change ... in such a way that it is transmitted from person to person more easily."
Cat infections
Kuiken's findings, which appear in the journal Science, were not entirely unexpected. At least three pet cats died of bird flu, and a white tiger in a Thailand zoo was infected by the avian virus in February.
The H5N1 virus does not yet appear widespread in cat circles in Asia. American felines are considered to be even safer, as the virus has not yet been detected here, and relatively few pets come into contact with poultry anyway.