Sick Iowa Kitty Had Swine Flu

Cat-owners everywhere have a new worry. Iowa health officials have reported the first known case of the new H1N1 flu in a kitty.

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You can keep your cat swine flu free, like this one, by washing your hands before petting it.

iStockphoto.com

You can keep your cat swine flu free, like this one, by washing your hands before petting it.

iStockphoto.com

The 13-year-old cat probably caught the virus from humans. Two of the three folks who shared the house with the feline suffered from flu-like illness.

It figures the swine flu virus would eventually sicken one or more cats. Cats have been known to get the flu.

Famously, in 2004 there was a major outbreak among big zoo cats in Thailand of the dreaded H5N1 bird flu virus— the one most public health officials feared would touch off the next pandemic. Before it was over, 147 tigers and two rare white snow leopards died in the Bangkok zoo or were euthanized. The big cats were probably infected by eating uncooked meat from infected chickens.

In 2006, at least one domestic feline, in Germany, died of H5N1 bird flu.

And of course uncounted millions...perhaps billions...of chickens, ducks, geese and other birds have suffered and died from the H5N1 strain, which still circulates in Asia and occasionally infects humans in close contact with chickens. Among these unlucky humans, 60 percent have died.

Lots of other species are susceptible to the 2009 H1N1 flu, the American Veterinary Medicine Association says. The new virus has infected pigs in Minnesota, Indiana, Alberta, not to mention swine herds in Argentina, Iceland, Singapore, Northern Ireland, Norway and Japan. Turkeys in Canada and Chile. Ferrets are especially susceptible to flu.

In all or nearly all cases, the animals caught the new H1N1 bug from humans.

Both the humans and the kitty in the flu-struck Iowa household have recovered, say Iowa health officials.

The Iowa health department's public health veterinarian, Dr. Ann Garvey, urges pet owners with flu symptoms to protect their animals in the same way they would their human friends and relatives — wash their hands a lot, protect the pets from human coughs and sneezes. And if their pet seems flu-ish, call the vet.

Update: Late today we got hold of Garvey, who told us the cat's owners were tested for the swine flu virus. By the time the tests were performed, the people had recovered and the results were negative. But Garvey says from the symptoms of both humans and cat, there's no doubt they all had the new H1N1 virus.

Dr. Kyoung-Jin Yoon of Iowa State University, who tested samples from the cat, says the virus was positively identified by repeated PCR tests (which detects viral gene sequences) and by growing the virus in a laboratory culture.