Expert says cats may spread bird flu to humans

The rapid spread of H5N1 bird flu across Europe and the Middle East in the last month and the re-emergence of the virus in Asia, has further ignited fears that the deadly virus will mutate and cause the pandemic everyone fears.

The panic has not been helped by comments by Dr Albert Osterhaus, of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, head of a team of leading virologists in the Netherlands,who says domestic cats may help the virus to adapt into a more highly infectious strain in humans.

They say their research has shown that cats catch bird flu easily, either by close contact with infected birds or by eating them, and that they can transmit the virus to other cats.

The implied threat has prompted a call from experts for new precautions because cats, and possibly other mammals, can be infected and could spread the virus.

The first cases of H5N1 among cats were reported in Thailand in 2004, when 14 out of 15 cats in a household near Bangkok became ill and died after eating an infected chicken carcass.

Following that infections were then found among leopards and tigers fed on poultry at Thai zoos.

Germany will start culling to prevent the spread of bird flu after finding the first case of a the highly pathogenic form of the virus on a farm in the eastern state of Saxony with more than 16,000 turkey, geese and chickens.

A number of European Union countries, Germany included, have reported cases of avian flu in wild birds, but on the whole most have managed to keep it out of domestic flocks.

Pet owners in Europe have become very concerned over the virus following reports that cats in Germany had become infected and researchers say animals such as dogs, foxes, ferrets and seals may also be vulnerable to infection.

They are recommending that in areas where avian flu is endemic, cats should be kept indoors and away from contact with birds or their droppings.

Osterhaus has suggested a vaccine for cats may be needed.

France was the first EU nation to report an outbreak on a poultry farm in February.

Children who play outdoors in areas shared with backyard poultry remain one of the groups most at risk and in the latest case in Camdodia, a boy from the southeastern province of Prey Veng, near to Vietnam, has died from the virus.

Michael O'Leary, the World health Organisation (WHO) representative in Phnom Penh say a laboratory in the capital confirmed the boy was infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Recently two Egyptian women have died of bird flu and Egyptian officials say the latest human case there is in a baby girl from the south of the country whose father raises birds in his home.

Authorities say she is in a stable condition after receiving treatment.

Bird flu remains predominantly an animal disease, but can infect people who come into direct contact with infected birds.

Although there is no evidence that people can contract bird flu through eating properly cooked meat, the spread of the virus has caused poultry sales to plummet in many markets.

According to the most recent figures from the World Health Organisation, it has killed 108 people since late 2003.