Cat in Oklahoma tests positive for avian flu

The  US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has reported four  H5N1 avian flu detections in domestic cats, including one from Oklahoma, which hasn’t recently reported the virus in poultry or in dairy cows.

The detection in Oklahoma occurred in Harmon County, located in the southwestern part of the state on the border with Texas.

The cat is Oklahoma’s first detection in a mammal. The sample was collected on March 20, and the virus is a reassortant between the global 2.3.4.4b H5N1 clade and a North American wild bird lineage.

The three other H5N1 detections in domestic cats—sampled in late May— were in Michigan’s Clinton County, where H5N1 had been found in dairy herds, and in Idaho’s Jerome County, where H5N1 has been detected in poultry, alpacas, and dairy herds. The fourth new detection was from a cat from Colorado’s Morgan County.

So far, the virus has been reported in 21 domestic cats.

The virus has also been found in house mice in New Mexico.