In Poland, more and more cats are testing positive for the H5N1 virus, known colloquially as "bird flu," which is alarming health experts. The World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement on July 16 detailing the "unusual" deaths of cats across the country. So far, at least 34 cats have been infected and 25 have died, including 14 that were euthanized. One of the infected animals wasn't a house cat, but rather a caracal, which is a medium-sized wild cat native to Africa.
"This is the first report of high numbers of cats infected with avian influenza A(H5N1) spread over a wide geographical area within any country," WHO said. "The source of exposure of cats to the virus is currently unknown and epizootic investigations are ongoing. There are several possibilities for the source of infection, among which the cats could have had direct or indirect contact with infected birds or their environments, ate infected birds, or ate food contaminated with the virus."
So far, there have been no documented cases of humans catching H5N1 from these cats. Among the general population, WHO considers the risk of this happening to be low. So, no need to worry about an outbreak caused by Sniffles the cat just yet. Nonetheless, the possibility it could happen isn't zero. If H5N1 crosses over to humans, it could spell a new pandemic on par or even worse than COVID, and every encounter that humans have with a bird flu-infected animal increases the risk.
