Urgent recall for pet food contaminated with bird flu issued after cat dies

An urgent recall has been issued for pet food after a cat died from eating the product, which was later revealed to be contaminated with bird flu.

Northwest Naturals, based out of Portland, Oregon, is voluntarily recalling bags of its 'Turkey Recipe' raw frozen pet food after it tested positive for the bird flu virus.

The product that tested positive was the company's 98 percent turkey, organs and bones bagged froze raw food. 

It was sold across the US through distributors in Washington, Arizona, Rhode Island, Georgia, Maryland and several other states.

The products were also distributed in Canada's British Columbia. 

It is unclear when the cat which died ate the food, but lab tests revealed there was a 'genetic match between the virus in the raw and frozen pet food and the infected cat'.

Consumption of raw or uncooked pet food contaminated with bird flu can cause illness in animals. 

Dogs and cats infected with bird flu could display a mix of symptoms including a fever, a lack of energy, a loss of appetite, stomach issues and seizures. 

To date, one death from the virus in connection with the product has been reported in a domestic cat, but no human cases have been linked to it. 

In humans, bird flu is spread by close contact with an infected bird (dead or alive), such as handling infected birds, touching droppings or bedding, or killing/preparing infected poultry for cooking.

You can't catch the virus through eating fully cooked poultry or eggs but raw products could prove hazardous.

The recalled product is packaged in 2lb plastic bags marked with 'best if used by' dates of 05/21/26 and 06/23/2026. 

The company is cooperating with the Oregon Department of Agriculture on the recall, which was not issued by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Laboratory testing from the US Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University confirmed a cat died after consuming the raw frozen pet food.

Commenting on the case, ODA State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said: 'We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food.

'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.'

Consumers who have purchased the recalled product are instructed to discard it immediately and contact the place of purchase for a full refund. 

A record number of humans, cattle and birds have been infected with bird flu this year, in a wave that experts have called 'astounding.'

And last week, the US reported its first severe human case of H5N1 — with California declaring a state of emergency over the virus just hours later.

The CDC still says the virus poses a 'low' threat to the public, adding there is no evidence it has started to spread from person-to-person.

But infectious disease experts are alarmed over the figures, warning the scale of cases and every infection outside of birds raises the risk of the virus gaining mutations, allowing it to spread between people.

Dr Marc Johnson, a virologist at the University of Missouri, said on X: 'This virus might not go pandemic, but it is really trying hard, and it sure is getting a lot of opportunities.'

Overall, figures show since the virus was detected in the US in January 2022, more than 12,000 wild and domestic flocks have been infected.

After the virus spread to cows this year, it was diagnosed in 866 herds across 16 states — with the majority in California and Colorado.

And 65 cases have now been detected in humans across nine states this year, the most cases reported in the US in at least two decades. 

Before the current outbreak, the last human case of bird flu was in 1997.