A California man’s efforts to keep his pets healthy with raw milk have tragically backfired after two of his beloved cats died from drinking unpasteurized milk recalled for bird flu. The owner, Joseph Journell, 56, had been drinking Raw Farm milk himself due to its supposed health benefits and mistakenly gave it to his 14-year-old tabby, Alexander, and 4-year-old tuxedo cat, Tuxsie.
After the cats’ deaths, a third pet, Big Boy, was hospitalized for a week with symptoms consistent with bird flu before being treated with antiviral medications. The veterinary team confirmed that Big Boy’s urine samples were positive for H5N1 at labs run by the U.S. Agriculture Department and Cornell University.
Experts have linked unpasteurized milk to neurological disease in infected cats, which has resulted in nearly a dozen cat deaths in California since early December. An influenza expert, Richard Webby, stated that flu virus survival likely varies widely in different lots of milk, contradicting Raw Farm owner Mark McAfee’s claims that the virus is not capable of causing infection days after it was bottled and sold.
Federal and state health officials have warned people against drinking raw milk due to the risk of bird flu infection. Pet owners are also advised to avoid feeding unpasteurized milk and raw meat diets to their animals. The FDA has cautioned that cats should not be fed products from affected farms unless thoroughly cooked or pasteurized to kill the virus.
Journell, who is seeking compensation for his treatment costs, said he will no longer drink raw milk after experiencing the devastating consequences firsthand.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/raw-milk-california-cats-bird-flu-c3f6201216efb2a7e98ca143329a631a