A pet cat in Oregon has died from bird flu after eating raw cat food that tested positive for H5N1. It’s the latest worrying development in the ongoing spread of bird flu among animals and humans this year.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) announced the cat’s death Thursday. The death comes after a bird flu outbreak at Washington’s Wild Felid Advocacy Center this month. The outbreak killed 20 big cats, including African servals, bobcats, and cougars.
According to ODA officials, the house cat tested positive for a H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, that was genetically identical to viruses found in samples of raw and frozen pet food sold by the company Northwest Naturals. While no human cases tied to the pet food have emerged as of yet, the company has issued a voluntary recall of its affected products.
“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food,” said ODA State Veterinarian Ryan Scholz in a department statement. “This cat was strictly an indoor cat; it was not exposed to the virus in its environment, and results from the genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and infected cat were exact matches to each other.”
Northwest Naturals has issued a voluntary recall of its Northwest Naturals brand 2lb Feline Turkey Recipe raw & frozen pet food. The company is specifically recalling its 2-pound plastic bags with “Best if used by” dates of 05/21/26 B10 and 06/23/2026 B1. The products were sold nationwide in the U.S.
H5N1 bird flu has become a serious public health concern lately, thanks to continued outbreaks in wild birds and poultry, as well as the emergence of H5N1 and other avian influenza strains in dairy cows and other mammals this year.
As of early December, outbreaks of H5N1 among dairy cows have occurred in 16 states this year. More than 60 human cases of H5N1 in the U.S. have been documented in 2024, most linked to contact with infected cows or poultry. Cats, too, have been caught in the crossfire. There have been several outbreaks of bird flu among both domestic cats and wild big cats at zoos and animal sanctuaries this year, in the U.S. and elsewhere.
H5N1 cases in domestic cats have largely been traced back to cats drinking contaminated unpasteurized, or raw, milk, either while living on dairy farms or from drinking commercially sold products. Plenty of research has indicated that raw milk can be a viable transmission route for spreading bird flu to humans as well. There have been other recent cases of H5N1 in cats traced back to improperly sterilized raw food, though this appears to be the first such case detected in the U.S.
The silver lining is that no other H5N1 cases have been tied back to the Oregon cat or to the pet food (one human case of H5N1 was reported in the state this year, though it wasn’t connected to dairy cows or milk). On December 11, Oregon’s Department of Agriculture announced that it would test milk from every commercial dairy in the state as a precautionary measure against the spread of bird flu; that decision came on the heels of hundreds of confirmed bird flu cases across 16 states, including from dairy cattle herds in Idaho, Nevada, and California.
While human cases of H5N1 this year have largely been mild so far (though not all), some research has suggested that H5N1 is especially dangerous to felines. And the longer these viruses are allowed to circulate between cows, cats, humans, and other mammals, the greater the risk that a nightmare, pandemic-ready strain will eventually emerge—one that can spread quickly between humans and cause widespread disease and death.
H5N1 isn’t the only potential danger that might come from eating raw pet food, Oregon health officials note. These products also have a higher risk of containing other nasty germs such as Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli bacteria.
