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Archive Number 20061008.2890
Published Date 08-OCT-2006
Subject PRO/AH/EDR> Avian influenza (202) - Indonesia: porcine, feline
Date: Sat 7 Oct 2006
From: Hon Ip <hip@usgs.gov>
Source: The Jakarta Post [edited]
<http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20061007.H06&irec=5>
Cats can carry bird flu, study says
------------------------------------- Recent studies have revealed that cats can contract the avian influenza
virus and that there is no evidence that migratory birds are responsible
for the spread of the disease.
A study conducted by the Indonesian Environment Information Center (PILI)
in Yogyakarta found that stray cats had caught the H5N1 virus through
contact with infected poultry at traditional markets.
"We are positive that cats can have the virus, although it is yet to be
proven that they can transmit the virus to other animals or humans," PILI
director Iwan Setiawan said on Thursday [5 Oct 2006] after a discussion on
the role of migratory birds in the spreading the virus.
The cat & the Dog was expected the Adaptor of the Flu Virus Burung
Bandung, (.
Batununggal the Bandung City, the Centre of the tropics Illness and the Infection (TDIC) the Airlangga University will take the cat specimen and the available dog in the Bandung City and the Malik Sadikin Hospital (RSHS) Bandung.
The two animals were expected as the adaptor of the bird flu virus, apart from the pig.
?The taking the cat specimen will be done in wet market or the traditional markets and reconciliation hospitals, one of them RSHS that prepared gave permission,? said the Head of the Centre of the tropics Illness and the Infection (TDIC) the Airlangga University, Dr. drh.C. A. Nidom, when being contacted via telephoned, on Sunday (1/10).
But, the Managing Director RSHS Bandung, Dr. Cissy R. Sudjana the officer rejected this matter. He did not feel he had given permission to any side to take the available cat specimen in RSHS. ?Gak knew, I gak could the written request for permission from anywhere.If gak with permission, yes, gak could. Moreover the cat that whatever,? he said.
The research that has gone for the last two week, continued Nidom, was based on the cat fact to the virus adaptor through the poultry was infected that was eaten by him.
Moreover, he had found the virus H5N1 on the cat body in several areas in Indonesia.
?Indeed, was based on results of the research beforehand, just the proven pig could as the virus adaptor and afterwards spread him to humankind,? he said.
According to him, the cat and the dog became the animal that was expected strong at could become the virus adaptor H5N1 as in the case of the pig.Added, the spread of the bird flu virus could not be only seen from the poultry to humankind, like that uptil now was carried out by the Department of the Health.
The bird flu virus, added he, could be spread through the other animal, that is the pig that has been proven in Tangerang, last year.
?During this often the distortion in the handling of the case of bird flu has happened because that was seen by only spreads of the poultry to humans,? he said.
The government he thought immediately did not follow up the discovery about the pig.
The spread from the poultry to humankind, small his possibility because of two obstacles.
Firstly, the place of attachments to the virus receptor between the poultry and the humankind were different.
?Chickens that spesifitas his receptor 23, whereas humankind 26.
Now, the pig had the two receptor kinds this,? he said.
Secondly, the temperature of the chicken body with the humankind was different far.The temperature of the revolving poultry body 40 to 41 Celsius levels, whereas humankind only 36 Celsius levels.
?Because of that, the virus needed the adaptor.
Until this just the pig that could because he had two receptors that were the same as the poultry and humankind and the pig had the temperature of the body that be the same as humans,? he revealed.
Snips from ProMed about Avian Flu and pets (BF outbreak in Holland in 2003):
Archive Number 20051221.3649
Published Date 21-DEC-2005
Subject PRO/AH> Avian influenza, A/H7N7, human - The Netherlands: 2003
A/H7 seroprevalence in household members was higher among those who had pet birds (e.g., canary) kept indoors at home and among those having any other indoor pets in their homes (e.g., cat, dog, hamster) than among those who did not.
Although we observed higher seroprevalence in those household members who had pet birds kept indoors at home, this cannot account for all seropositive secondary cases, as only 7 of all 33 cases had indoor birds at home.
However, this finding raises the question of whether indoor pet birds could play a role in the household transmission of avian influenza virus, especially since 6 of 7 cases with pet birds in the home were part of the same household.
It is conceivable that these animals could serve as an amplifier for multiplication and shedding of the virus in the home environment. This deserves further attention in future outbreaks, for example, by monitoring and screening pet birds in the homes of poultry workers.
In addition, our results suggest that cloth handkerchiefs, having indoor pet birds at home or having at least 2 toilets at home could be risk factors for household transmission A/H7N7.
[We recommend that] Indoor pet birds of poultry workers should be screened and monitored during future outbreaks of avian influenza in order to determine the role of indoor birds in household transmission of the virus;
Dunno, this was found by statistical analysis, the writers do not have an explanation:
Seroprevalence was higher among those who had at least 2 toilets in their homes, than among those who had only one toilet. At household level, seroprevalence was higher among the 17 households that had 2 or more toilets in the home than among the 7 households with only one toilet at home (RR = 2.7, 95 percent confidence interval 0.8-8.9, p = .061).
Seroprevalence was significantly higher among those who had at least 2
toilets in their homes than among those who had only one toilet. We have no
explanation for this result.
To return to the topic: sampling pets should be standard procedure, may be more research is needed before WHO updates its guidelines?
?Addressing chronic disease is an issue of human rights ? that must be our call to arms"
Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief The Lancet
Archive Number 20060807.2210
Published Date 07-AUG-2006
Subject PRO/AH/EDR> Avian influenza (176) - Iraq, cats
AVIAN INFLUENZA (176) - IRAQ, CATS
*************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
[1]
Date: Mon 7 Aug 2006
From: Mary Marshall <tropical.forestry@btinternet.com>
Source: Reuters Alertnet, 6 Aug 2006 [edited]
<http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N06309606.htm>
Cats infected with bird flu in Iraq - report
------------------------------------------- Cats that died during an outbreak of bird flu in Iraq last February
[2006] were infected with the H5N1 virus, U.S. naval medical
researchers reported.
Any cat that becomes ill or dies when suspected bird flu is
circulating should be tested for the virus, the Navy team reported in
the August 2006 issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The team at the Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 or NAMRU-3, based
in Cairo, have been studying bird flu viruses taken from animals and
people in the region.
The H5N1 avian influenza virus spread out of eastern Asia and into
Europe and the Middle East late in 2005. It has been found in 48
countries since it re-emerged in 2003, mostly in birds.
It can infect other animals as well as humans and has so far killed
at least 134 people in 9 countries.
Samuel Yingst, Magdi Saad and Stephen Felt of NAMRU-3 had been
hearing stories from veterinarians in Turkey and Iraq who said cats
had died where bird flu outbreaks were being reported in January
[2006]. But they could not get any samples from the cats.
"After H5N1 influenza was diagnosed in a person in Sarcapcarn,
Kurdish northern Iraq, the government of Iraq requested a World
Health Organization investigation, which was supported in part by
Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 veterinarians," they wrote in their report.
People told the WHO team about cats that had died in a house near the
city of Erbil where 51 chickens died. The researchers got the bodies
of 2 of the cats and a sick goose from next door.
The animals had flu virus throughout their bodies, Yingst and
colleagues reported. The virus found in the cats and goose strongly
resembled the virus from a person who died in Iraq, suggesting it had not become adapted to cats.
The researchers said their findings support the idea that cats can be
infected with H5N1 and may play a role in transmitting it, and that
the virus could possibly mutate in the bodies of cats.
Flu viruses change in 2 ways, by steady mutation, which H5N1 has been
seen to do, and by reassortment, which means swapping genes with
other flu viruses. In 1957 and 1968, pandemic influenza broke out
after the H3N2 viruses reassorted with other viruses.
Cats are mammals and biologically closer to humans than birds are, so
in theory, a virus that can easily infect a cat could infect a person
more easily than a purely avian virus, which H5N1 remains.
"The route of infection in these cats cannot be determined
definitively. How cats behave when eating birds makes both oral and
respiratory infection possible," the researchers added.
A cat died of bird flu in Germany in March 2006 and Austrian experts
said a cat there was infected with H5N1 a week later but did not get sick.
The Iraqi cats were infected with a distinct strain of the H5N1 virus
known as Clade II, which was 1st found in migrating birds in Qinghai
Lake in western China in 2005, the NAMRU team said. "To our
knowledge, this is the 1st report of a Qinghai-like virus detected in
domestic cats," the report reads.
[Byline: Maggie Fox]
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Reports about natural H5N1 infections in domestic cats have been
received, in the past, from Thailand, Germany (Ruegen) and Austria;
there have been rumors on cat infections in Indonesia as well.
In view of the significance of NAMRU's observations, we found it
appropriate to copy their letter to the EID editor, slightly
abbreviated, as follows. The original paper, including tables and
references, is available free at the given URL. - Mod.AS]
Qinghai-like H5N1 from Domestic Cats, Northern Iraq, A letter to EID
editor By Samuel L. Yingst, Magdi D. Saad and Stephen A. Felt (US
Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3, Cairo, Egypt)
-----------------------------------------------
Literature describing HPAI H5N1 infection of cats is limited to
descriptions of infections with a subset of clade I viruses.
HPAI H5N1 viruses, highly similar to viruses isolated from Qinghai Lake in
western People's Republic of China in spring 2005, are now rapidly
disseminating throughout Eurasia and Africa.
To our knowledge, this is the 1st report of a Qinghai-like virus detected in domestic cats.
This finding is noteworthy because the host range of influenza
viruses is determined by the antigenic characteristics of the
hemagglutinin and neuraminidase molecules; clade II viruses are
antigenically distinct from clade I viruses, and Qinghai-like viruses
are genetically distinct from other clade II viruses.
Personal communications in January 2006 from field veterinarians
noted deaths of domestic cats that were associated with suspected
(eventually confirmed) H5N1 outbreaks in eastern Turkey (2 villages)
and Kurdish northern Iraq (Sarcapcarn in Sulymaniyah Governorate and
Grd Jotyar in Erbil Governorate).
The clinical conditions of the birds did not suggest HPAI to villagers or consulting veterinarians.
In both scenarios in Iraq, results of rapid antigen detection tests
with the Anigen kit (Suwon, Republic of Korea)
[<http://www.anigen.co.kr/product/eng_rapid.asp>],
while positive for influenza A, were negative for H5, so the
outbreaks were not thought to be caused by HPAI, but concern about
the unusual deaths in cats remained. Because the regions are remote
and veterinary services limited, such anecdotal reports have rarely
been followed up on.
After H5N1 influenza was diagnosed in a person in Sarcapcarn, Kurdish
northern Iraq, the government of Iraq requested a World Health
Organization investigation, which was supported in part by Naval
Medical Research Unit No. 3 veterinarians. While investigating the
situation in Erbil Governorate, the team was informed of suspicious
deaths in cats associated with the death of all 51 chickens in a
household in Grd Jotyar (10 km north of Erbil City) [See Iraq map;
Arbil is situated in the north
<http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/iraq.pdf>].
From 3 Feb to 5 Feb 2006, 5 cats reportedly died; 2 of these were
available for examination on 8 Feb 2006. A sick goose from an
adjacent household was killed and underwent necropsy with the cats.
Gross pathologic changes in cats were similar to those previously
reported, except that severe hemorrhagic pancreatitis was observed.
Tissues from these animals and archived tissues from one of the 51
chickens were conveyed to Cairo for virologic examination.
An influenza A H5 virus was present in multiple organs in all species
from the outbreak site in Grd Jotyar. cDNA for sequencing was
amplified directly from RNA extracts from pathologic materials
without virus isolation.
On the basis of sequence analysis of the full HA1 gene and 219 amino acids of the HA2 gene, the viruses from the goose and one cat from Grd Jotyar and from the person who died from Sarcapcarn (sequence derived from PCR amplification from 1st-passage egg material) are >99 percent identical at the nucleotide and amino acid levels (GenBank nos. DQ435200-02). Thus, no indication of virus adaptation to cats was found.
The viruses from Iraq are most closely related to currently circulating Qinghai-like viruses, but when compared with A/bar-headed goose/Qinghai/65/2005 (H5N1) (GenBank no. DQ095622), they share only 97.4 percent identity at the nucleic acid level with 3 amino acid substitutions of unknown significance.
On the other hand, the virus from the cat is only 93.4 percent
identical to A/tiger/Thailand/CU-T4/2004(H5N1) (GenBank no.
AY972539). These results are not surprising, given that these strains
are representative of different clades.
Sequencing of 1349 bp of the N gene from cat 1 and the goose (to be submitted to GenBank) show identity at the amino acid level and that the N genes of viruses infecting the cat and goose are >99 percent identical to that of A/bar-headed goose/Qinghai/65/2005(H5N1).
These findings support the notion that cats may be broadly susceptible to circulating H5N1 viruses and thus may play a role in reassortment, antigenic drift, and transmission.
The route of infection in these cats cannot be determined definitively. How cats behave when eating birds makes both oral and respiratory infection possible.
However, the source of infection seems clear in that an identical H5N1 virus was detected in samples from a goose from the same dwelling, and an H5 virus was detected from archived samples from one of 51 chickens that died over the course of a few days.
The potential for horizontal spread cannot be ruled out since we detected viral RNA in gut, stool, and trachea; clinical signs developed in all cats, and all died from the acute illness 2-4 days after the chicken deaths began; therefore, simultaneous exposure seems likely.
Death in cats, spatially and temporally associated with unusual deaths in poultry, especially when the cats show positive results of a rapid antigen detection test for influenza A, should be considered to indicate a presumptive diagnosis of HPAI, and appropriate response should ensue.
Archive Number 20060620.1700
Published Date 20-JUN-2006
Subject PRO/AH/EDR> Avian influenza (140) - Indonesia (cat)
AVIAN INFLUENZA (140) - INDONESIA (CAT)
************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:59:32 +0100
From: Mary Marshall <tropical.forestry@btinternet.com>
Source: Thanhnien News, 19 Jun 2006 [edited]
<http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=16784>
A case of cat infection by the H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected in
Indonesia, a World Health Organization medical officer in Jakarta said
Monday. "We have evidence of one cat in Indonesia that has already been
infected by this virus," said Steven Bjorge, medical officer for the WHO's
Communicable Disease Section. Bjorge, speaking in a panel discussion at the
Jakarta Foreign Correspondents' Club, said he thinks the cat "was infected
probably by eating contaminated birds. This is a very rare disease. It's
extremely difficult for this virus to be passed on to humans," he said,
downplaying concerns about cross-species transmission of the virus. There
are no recorded cases of cat-to-human H5N1 infection anywhere in the world.
Trisatya Naipospos, the government's top adviser on H5N1 strategy, told the panel there have been unpublished studies of other cats in Indonesia being tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
[And] there have been a number of cases of feline infection by the dangerous H5N1 strain of avian flu outside of Indonesia, all of which appear to have been associated with outbreaks in domestic or wild birds and acquired through ingestion of raw meat from an infected bird.
In December 2003, 2 tigers and 2 leopards that were fed with fresh chicken
carcasses died of H5N1 infection at a zoo in Thailand. In October 2004, 147
of 441 captive tigers in another zoo in Thailand died or were euthanized as
a result of infection after being fed fresh chicken carcasses. Civet cats
have died of bird flu in Vietnam, while earlier in 2006 a domestic cat in
Germany became the first case of a European Union mammal dying of bird
flu. There have also been cases of martens, pigs and ferrets being infected.
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[If you look, you shall find. I fully expect that once the
veterinary/public health investigators are aware that domestic cats are at
risk, they will be swabbing them along with the family members.
The interesting point will be whether the domestic cat infections precede the
related family cases, are coincidental, or follow family cases. And if they
are blood-sampling the family, they might as well sample the cats also for
antibodies. - MHJ.Mod]
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