House cats vulnerable to H1N1

For any cat lovers on the site I thought you may be interested to know that there have been house cats that have contracted and so far 2 (that have been tested and are on record) have died from this.

Cat owners should isolate themselves from their cats until the fever has been gone for a full 24 hours and be sure and wash hands thoroughly before preparing their food.

An AP bulletin, published yesterday by Fox News, reported that a second cat in Oregon has succumbed to the H1N1 (aka 2009 swine flu) virus. (Your Guide reported the first death in November.) The notice was announced by Public Health Veterinarian Emilio DeBess, who was quoted as saying that the possibility is that cats are more sensitive to H1N1. So far, no dogs have contracted the H1N1 virus, although it has affected both cats and ferrets. Several other cats now have all contracted the virus, in each case transferred by human family members who had the flu. Veterinarians consider this fact a rarity, because traditionally, zoonotic diseases have been transferred from animals to humans, and not the other way around.

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