The director of the Wild Felid Advocacy Center in Shelton stated they went from having 37 cats to now simply having 17. Some cats who survived are nonetheless recovering.
SHELTON, Wash. — A wild cat sanctuary in Mason County stated greater than half of their giant cats have died resulting from an avian flu outbreak.
The Washington State Department of Health has confirmed that the avian flu has been detected at a wildlife advocacy middle in Mason County and stated:
“The state of affairs is being investigated by WSDA and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to find out the seemingly supply of an infection to the felines.”
“We’ve misplaced 20 cats resulting from this virus, or signs of this fowl flu virus,” stated Mark Mathews, the director of the Wild Felid Advocacy Center.
The Wild Felid Advocacy Center is a nonprofit wild cat sanctuary on Harstine Island. Mathews began the sanctuary 20 years in the past and the animals are near his coronary heart. He stated he by no means imagined one thing like this might occur.
“Every day, it is simply type of you get up and also you assume hopefully it is a dangerous dream, however it’s not,” stated Mathews.
At the top of November, the sanctuary had 37 cats, now right down to 17.
Mathews stated the primary cat acquired sick round Thanksgiving and the state confirmed instances of the avian flu in a few of their cats in early December.
Now, the middle is closed and underneath quarantine, and solely a choose few individuals are allowed inside. They are required to put on PPE when close to the cats.
Mathews stated of the remaining cats, there may be one in important situation, 4 are recovering, and 12 haven’t had any signs.
The middle is hoping for monetary assist from the neighborhood as a result of prices of medical take care of the cats and having to throw away hundreds of kilos of meat as a safeguard. Mathews stated on this previous month, they’ve incurred round $20,000 to $30,000 in damages.
“I think we’ll in all probability be round $150,000 in damages earlier than that is throughout,” stated Mathews.
The Washington State Veterinarian informed KING 5 that usually, cats are contaminated by means of contaminated carcasses or meat merchandise.
“Cats are extremely inclined to avian influenza viruses,” stated Dr. Amber Itle, the Washington State Veterinarian.
She stated that Avian Flu has been in Washington for practically three years and so they have seen mammals die from the virus. Some of the mammals they’ve seen contaminated embody cats, raccoons and seals.
According to the Washington State Department of Agriculture, there have been 11 confirmed instances of avian flu in people within the state, all of who had been farm staff contaminated by poultry. None of these individuals had critical signs.
“What we’re seeing proper now could be there is no proof of mammal-to-mammal transmission, and there is no proof of mammal-to-human or human-to-human transmission,” stated Dr. Itle.
The Wild Felid Advocacy Center continues to be closed to company and plans to reopen within the spring. They have arrange a donation hyperlink on their website.
For extra data on the avian flu, click here.
