On May 7 2025, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Public Health published an open access paper in Open Forum Infectious Diseases documenting research on avian influenza in cats and calling for urgent surveillance of cats to help avoid human-to-human transmission.
“The virus has evolved, and the way that it jumps between species – from birds to cats, and now between cows and cats, cats and humans – is very concerning. As summer approaches, we are anticipating cases on farms and in the wild to rise again,” says lead and senior author Dr. Kristen Coleman, assistant professor in UMD School of Public Health’s Department of Global, Environmental and Occupational Health and affiliate professor in UMD’s Department of Veterinary Medicine.
“Bird flu is very deadly to cats, and we urgently need to figure out how widespread the virus is in cat populations to better assess spillover risk to humans,” she said. “We want to help protect both people and pets.”
Spanning data from 2004 through 2024, the global review of research papers found 607 avian influenza 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 avian influenza 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 avian influenza are multiplying. The study shows cats contract avian influenza 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.
Infected cats often suffer from acute encephalitis (brain swelling) and other severe symptoms, which are mistaken for rabies, according to the study. The most deadly strain of avian influenza, H5N1, is highly infectious and makes up the majority of cases in domestic cats, with a current 90% case fatality rate. In humans, avian influenza is slightly less deadly, but still has killed around half of the 950 people infected with it globally. Between April 28, 2022 (when cumulative data on humans in the U.S. started being collected) and January 6, 2025, the United States has seen 66 confirmed cases in humans and one death.
There are no reported cases of human to human transmission of avian influenza, but researchers are concerned that as the virus spreads and evolves, it could become easily transmissible through the air.
“Our future research will involve studies to determine the prevalence of HPAI and other influenza viruses in high-risk cat populations such as dairy barn cats. Our research seeks to protect people and our vulnerable pet cats from the emerging threat of H5N1,” said Ian Gill Bemis, coauthor of the paper and doctoral student studying avian influenza in cats.
Funding for this project was provided by the University of Maryland Baltimore, Institute for Clinical & Translational Research (ICTR) and the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State (MPower) to KKC, as well as discretionary funding from the University of Maryland School of Public Health, Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health to KKC.
