Don't say you weren't warned about this

 

In the world where research into a bird flu vaccine has been canceled in the United States, we can read this:

Bird Flu in Cats Raises Pandemic Concerns
First major global review of bird flu in cats shows an emerging threat of a human pandemic.

OK, so why is this indicative of a problem?

"Spanning data from 2004 through 2024, the global review of research papers found 607 bird flu infections in cats, including 302 associated deaths, from 18 countries and in 12 types of cat species, from pet cats to tigers. Cats are not actively monitored for bird flu and testing is usually performed postmortem, if at all. Due to the lack of surveillance, the numbers are likely a significant underestimate, Coleman said.

Yet the ways cats are getting bird flu are multiplying. The study shows cats contract bird flu directly by eating infected birds or contaminated raw chicken feed and indirectly through other mammals – for example, farm cats fed raw milk from infected cows, pet cats to other pet cats, tigers to other tigers. ...

Coleman and her team are particularly concerned about the potential for bird flu getting into animal shelters which could result in large outbreaks potentially involving humans – similar or worse to what happened in New York City with a different strain of bird flu in 2016."

So, if you are concerned about getting bird flu, or if you're concerned about your pet cat getting bird flu, or both, you should be concerned about the defunding of bird flu vaccine research. 

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Coleman KK, Bemis IG. Avian influenza virus infections in felines: A systematic review of two decades of literature. OFID. 2025:ofaf261. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofaf261 .