The Netherlands has confirmed its first case of a cat dying from infection with the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus.
In a letter to the House of Representatives, Piet Adema, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security, and Nature, stated that Wageningen University's Biomedical Veterinary Institute recently reported that a kitten on a goat farm was detected to be infected with the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus. The kitten was found dead by its owner. The other seven kittens from the same litter also died after being given to new owners, and it is suspected that they too may have been infected with the avian influenza virus, although the specific route of infection remains unclear.
The letter states that according to the owner, the mother cat had once brought home the carcass of a wild bird, which is suspected to have carried the avian influenza virus. The kittens may have become infected by consuming the carcass. Health experts also tested the farm’s goats and adult cats, but no avian influenza virus was detected.
The letter points out that previously, countries such as France have also reported cat deaths from avian influenza virus infections.
The Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment has upgraded the risk level for personnel in contact with infected animals from "low and moderate" to "moderate". For the general public, the risk of avian influenza infection remains "very low".
Currently, the avian influenza outbreak situation in the Netherlands is relatively severe. In October, the Dutch government announced the implementation of poultry housing and isolation measures across the country, and imposed a transport ban within a 10-kilometer radius of outbreak sites, prohibiting the transport of poultry, hatching eggs, table eggs, poultry manure, used bedding, and other animals and animal products from farms in the affected area.