Raw food can be deadly for cats: what's the issue

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that cases of H5N1 infection in domestic cats have recently become more frequent. They attribute the infection to the consumption of raw food.

It is noted that dogs also get infected with bird flu, but the disease is not as dangerous for them and they tolerate it much easier. For cats, the disease is often fatal, CNN writes.

According to experts, cats usually receive less veterinary care than dogs, so they are much less likely to visit clinics. When cats get the flu, their body condition deteriorates very quickly, and they may not show signs of illness until it is too late.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at least 74 domestic cats have tested positive for avian influenza since December 2022. This official count of infected cats is almost certainly an underestimate.

Domestic cats are the third most frequently detected H5N1 in non-farm mammals in the United States, after red foxes and mice.

One of the sources of this disease is raw food. Foods can be subjected to other treatments designed to reduce pathogens, including high-pressure processing, acidification, or irradiation, "but their effectiveness against viral pathogens such as H5N1 is currently unknown," experts say.

Veterinarians and infectious disease experts say that feeding raw food has no nutritional benefits, and the risks of raw food outweigh any potential benefits, whether prepared in an industrial setting or at home, especially in the context of the spread of bird flu.

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