What is This Flu Thing?

From late 2021 in Texas to right here and right now, pet parents are still hearing about the “avian flu” AKAL: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. While it has been here for three years already, now all of the sudden state departments of agriculture are taking action, but only on the north side of the United States. Most likely, the virus has spread through most of the country by now. Obviously, north of the US border, including Canada, probably isn’t very happy about the northward spread of this virus…maybe that’s the REAL reason that regulators are all of a sudden taking action.

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What do we THINK we know? 

• Supposedly the virus originated in Vietnam 
• Did I mention what “it” is? HPAI which is short for highly pathogenic avian influenza. AKA the flu. It is also sometimes referred to as the H5N1 flu. 
• It was somehow introduced to dairy cattle in Texas. Cats can get sick by it, too, which is a bit unusual. So.. cats and cattle. Weird right? 
• Oh, and by the way…it primarily affects birds. 

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Who remembers the West Nile virus in 1999? It started out in New York. Within 2 to 3 years, the virus had made its way all the way to the West Coast of the United States. The only ones who got sick were so-called “naïve people and animals”. Naïve, of course, being ones who had never seen the virus before. But… It was a great excuse for yet another new vaccine. This new vaccine was primarily for horses. (Pharma made big bank vaccinating all horses twice with the West Nile vaccine..the vaccine it’s still in use today.)

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So are we gonna come up with a vaccine for cats against HPAI? The virus has made it most of the way through the United States at this point…is it too late? 

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Or… are “they” going to suggest or create a vaccine for livestock? There might be a whole lot more head of cattle than cats, so… A LOT more money to be made. 

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OK, let’s get back to the science here. There are three VERY small studies that show that cats who eat flesh contaminated with this virus get sick. (Eight cats were infected in a laboratory and ultimately killed to be studied.)

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Infection by eating the virus is unusual, because MOST of the time…this flu has been a respiratory virus. 

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Remember these:

• Spanish flu. 
• H5N1 
• BYW the flu virus has been around for a very long time.

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What is alarming is that there’s recently been a recall issued of raw pet food that was implicated as the cause of the cat being ill. We have NO records and we DON’T know any other information. We don’t know where the cat came from OR any other information that could be helpful in this case. The owner was doing a great job by switching their feline pet to a fresh food diet. The cat then became sick. We don’t even know if the cat became sick because the food. But the alarming part? And I hope you’re still reading…The alarming part is the pet food was made in a USDA facility which means that the meat that was used for the pet food is also approved for use for human food! And yes…humans can indeed get sick from the flu. This is the flu which is why I already mentioned the Spanish Flu. 

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Because this is the same argument that is driving northern part of the United States, like Pennsylvania, department of agriculture to test milk from dairy cows. The concern is the cows will pass the virus in the milk.So…if anyone is drinking raw milk, they could potentially get sick. So, obviously the concern is that humans can get sick. So…why can’t humans get sick from undercooked meat? They can!

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(This DOES NOT mean that we need to cook our food to death! If we did, we would destroy all of the nutrition in it. We absolutely need to work on everybody’s immune system.)

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What I’m trying to explain…(I’m not sure I’m doing a very good job) is that the government is talking out of both sides of it’s mouth. 

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Either HPAI is a threat or it isn’t. 

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If it’s a threat…then testing in livestock should have started three years ago and the emergency use act the FDA used to authorize the Covid (and yes, west Nile in horses) vaccine should already have been enacted! Oh…and meat, poultry, and milk should have been tested for the last three years. 

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Or, if it’s not a threat then knock it off. 

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Are we looking for the next pandemic? Are we looking for another vaccine? Are we worried about trade with our Canadian neighbors? Are we trying to get rid of ALL fresh/raw animal-based foods, especially for pet consumption?

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Something doesn’t add up here! I just want you to be aware; please keep your scepticism hat on – and keep you and your cats’ immune system strong.