Bird Flu and feeding raw

[Ravenbird]

It appears that bird flu is on the rise, and is appearing more in mammals and cats seem to be most vulnerable. I may be reconsidering my raw topper pretty soon - I'm down to the last of the freezer batch. I can always make the same topper with cooked meat except the chicken feet, and those can make super bone broth. But evidently the virus can stay viable in frozen raw turkey cat food, so now I wonder about frozen raw anything. What I've been reading sounds like cats are super sensitive to this virus, more so than other animals, but now I'm getting concerned about raw for dogs. Anyone else following this?

Pet food recalled over bird flu contamination after cat dies

Northwest Naturals voluntarily recalled a batch of raw frozen food after an indoor cat died of bird flu, Oregon officials said.

www.nbcnews.com

20 big cats die from bird flu at Washington wildlife sanctuary

African servals, cougars and bobcats were among the animals that died at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[JanS]

I hope that doesn't apply to freeze dried too since I have a bunch of bags of it from Muenster.

 

[Ravenbird]

Yeah, after I posted I thought about freeze dried raw... Even if it's just cats affected it's going to put a hard dent in the raw pet food market. I've always said I'd much rather buy it premade, but I think when I get done with what I've got made up in the freezer right now (beef, chicken, turkey mixture) I'll make my next batch cooked. It's still human grade meat protein and nothing about that changes with cooking. I know I have freeze dried treats but I don't think it was raw, I'll have to check.

 

[Ravenbird]

Good information here. It does seem like cats are the very most vulnerable to this virus, dogs not so much.

Overview: H5N1 Influenza, Raw Diets and Pets

Issues with raw diets and H5N1 influenza risk in cats (and dogs) have gotten a lot of attention in the last week or two. Like most emerging disease

www.wormsandgermsblog.com

 

[JanS]

Well I didn't want to see this part, although our dogs have been getting freeze dried chicken as treats for months now.

Are frozen or freeze-dried raw diets lower risk for H5N1 influenza?

Freezing and freeze drying are effective preservation methods for viruses, so its unlikely that these methods substantially reduce the risk of viral contamination in raw diets. Ultralow freezing is used for longterm preservation of viruses, but shorter-term survival is also possible at temperatures achieved using normal freezers (-20C). A study of the survivability of H7N9 influenza on raw chicken meat (Dai et al. Lancet 2022) reported that viral infectivity was maintained for 9 days at -20C, 4 days at 4C and 4 days at 25C. This was a rather small study, so it is possible that somewhat longer survival could occur in some situations. In nature, long term (e.g. overwintering) survival of influenza virus in ice has been suspected.

While the survival kinetics of this virus with freezing are not clear, it should be assumed that the virus could survive frozen for at least a week, and possibly much longer. Freezing should not be assumed to be a risk mitigation measure for viral contamination of raw diets.

Freeze drying is a highly effective virus preservation method. Survival of virus in freeze dried food has not been assessed, but in the absence of specific evidence, it is reasonable to assume that influenza virus would survive for long periods of time in such diets.

 

[Ravenbird]

our dogs have been getting freeze dried chicken as treats for months now

I'm thinking that unless or until there is more mutation of the virus that as it is, dogs are not too susceptible to it. As far as I can tell only one dog has gotten it and it was eating a dead wild goose which tested positive. I'm actually less worried now than when the recall on the raw cat food happened. Anyone with cats though, I'd not feed raw.

 

[Gpcoguy]

I feed O.C. raw dog frozen patties. They are pasteurized so I think that should be safe. Any thoughts?

 

[Ravenbird]

Everything I have read tends toward pasteurization does kill the virus (in milk anyway) and also dogs just don't seem to be as susceptible on any account.