(Beth Clifton collage)
Wild cats stricken directly under the Pacific Flyway
HARSTINE ISLAND, Washington––Killing 20 of the 37 large and exotic cats at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington between December 2 and December 23, 2024, an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza on Harstine Island, Washington, south of Seattle, appears to have brought more attention to the pandemic potential of the disease than earlier outbreaks on nearly 600 commercial poultry farms and in nearly 750 “backyard” flocks in all 50 states.
But most of the coverage missed that H5N1 during the same time frame also killed two wild pumas, also called cougars or mountain lions, west of Harstine Island, on the Olympic Peninsula.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Narrow puma gene pool may make matters worse
Reported Scott Doggett for the Port Townsend Leader on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024, “The nation’s foremost cougar expert told The Leader the weekend before Christmas that their fate could foreshadow death by virus for the peninsula’s remaining pumas.
“Mark Elbroch, director of the puma program at Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, told The Leader on December 20, 2024, “It’s a possibility that their low genetic diversity may make them more susceptible to this sort of virus.
“We do know the strain we detected in these cougars is the one currently circulating in wild birds here in Washington,” Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife veterinarian Katie Haman confirmed to Doggett, “but we need more information to be able to address if these two cougars had the same identical strain and thus were exposed from the same source.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“No indication of cougar-to-cougar transmission”
“There is no indication of cougar-to-cougar transmission of H5N1,” Haman added.
Explained Doggett, “Washington’s cougars can be divided into two groups that are separated by Interstate 5: Those west of the freeway—several hundred found on the Olympic Peninsula—and a larger group found east of the interstate.
“The freeway prevents members of the groups from crossbreeding,” Doggett wrote. “Breeding prevention between the two groups has led to lower genetic diversity and higher rates of inbreeding among the peninsula’s mountain lions, which makes them more susceptible to disease.
“The first sick peninsula cougar,” Doggett mentioned, “a wild uncollared young male, was reported to wildlife authorities after he was seen in a pasture near Blyn in Clallam County, weak, bony and confused. A video taken by a passerby and provided to The Leader by Elbroch showed the animal too weak even to raise his tail, instead dragging it through mud as he went.
Young harbor seal on Hidden Beach.
(Merritt Clifton photo)
Preyed on seals & sea birds
“Despite being a member of a species renowned for leaping ability, the cougar was unable to clear a 3-foot-tall barbed-wire fence.
“A state game warden called to the scene euthanized the animal. An autopsy revealed bird flu in the feline’s blood and grass in his stomach. The cougar died on November 28,” Doggett relayed.
“The second cougar was also a young male,” who “wore a Panthera tracking collar. A review of the collar’s tracking data showed that the cougar stopped moving and presumably died on December 4, 2024.
“Panthera researchers deduced that the cougar had been preying on seal pups and seabirds on beaches and raccoons and other forest animals between Port Angeles and Clallam Bay, roughly 30 miles apart.
(Beth Clifton collage)
H5N1 hit seals nearby in 2003
While only Doggett appears to have reported about puma deaths on the Olympic Peninsula, word of the Harstine Island outbreak went national and then international on Christmas Day 2024, two days after the first report of it reached nearby Seattle through a late afternoon broadcast by Deborah Horne of KIRO 7 television news.
That H5N1 had reached Harstine Island and jumped from birds into mammals, after spreading throughout the U.S. since 2021, was in itself no surprise.
“Bird flu, already killing seabirds in the Salish Sea, has jumped to harbor seals in the first documented instance of marine mammals dying from the disease on the West Coast,” the Seattle Times noted on October 5, 2023.
“The deaths were confirmed in testing five stranded seals on Marrowstone Island this summer,” the Seattle Times explained, citing research findings by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration West Coast Region.
Wild Felid Advocacy Center founders Mark & Shelleen Mathews (1951-2021).
Cat deaths gave the outbreak wings
“Caspian terns were dying from the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza since July 2023 on Marrowstone and nearby Rat Island,” the Seattle Times mentioned. “The outbreak there has already killed an estimated 1,700 birds.”
Marrowstone Island and Rat Island are about 80 miles straight north of Harstine Island, as the waterfowl flap their wings along the Pacific Flyway. Clallam Bay is about 100 miles west of Marrowstone Island; Port Angeles is about 70 miles west along the same route.
What gave wings to the reports about the cat deaths at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington appears to have been simply that the victims this time were cats, not species routinely killed by the multi-million for human consumption.
Hannah eating a whole dead chicken with feathers. (Photo from Wild Felid Advocacy Center video)
Puma played with a dead hen
Founded in 2006 by husband and wife Mark and Shelleen Mathews, raising a budget of from $160,000 to $190,000 per year according to IRS Form 990 filings, the Wild Felid Advocacy Center on December 2, 2024 announced via Facebook “a temporary closure to protect the cats in our care. Some of the felids have been experiencing unknown illness,” the posting acknowledged.
A video posted by the Wild Felid Advocacy Center on November 25, 2021 showed an apparently healthy puma named Hannah Wyoming playing with a dead hen who had apparently been tossed to the puma whole.
A December 6, 2024 update disclosed that “Animal health officials confirmed the presence of bird flu HPAI in some of our felids.”
HPAI is short for High Pathogenic Avian Influenza, of which there are multiple strains, H5N1 being among the most deadly.
Tabbi the tiger succumbed to H5N1 at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center.
(Beth Clifton collage based on WFAC photo)
Puma who played with the dead hen died first
Then came the December 20, 2024 “Urgent Announcement: HPAI Outbreak at Our Sanctuary. We are heartbroken to share,” the Wild Felid Advocacy Center said, “that animal health officials have confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza among over half of our wild felids.
“This devastating viral infection, carried by wild birds, spreads primarily through respiratory secretions and bird-to-bird contact,” the Wild Felid Advocacy Center explained, “and can also be contracted by carnivorous mammals who ingest birds or other products.
“Cats are particularly vulnerable to this virus, which can cause subtle initial symptoms but progress rapidly, often resulting in death within 24 hours due to pneumonia-like conditions.”
Hannah Wyoming was among the four dead pumas at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center. Also deceased were Tabbi the Bengal/Amur tiger hybrid, five servals, four bobcats, two Canada lynx, a European lynx, a caracal, a Bengal cat, and a Geoffroy cat.
Three other cats had recovered from the virus, and one remained in critical condition as of December 24, 2024, Mark Mathews told The New York Times.
Crackle the caracal H5N1 victim.
(Wild Felid Advocacy Center photo)
Misdiagnosed as cancer
Hannah Wyoming, the first cat to fall ill, and Crackle, the caracal, were initially misdiagnosed by the Wild Felid Advocacy Center veterinarian as suffering from cancer.
The H5N1 outbreak was finally identified by the Washington State University veterinary lab on December 17, 2024, reported Deborah Horne for KIRO 7 television news.
“Now, the sanctuary is under quarantine with strict protocols to keep the 17 cats who remain alive,” Horne said. “They must disinfect their footwear, don masks and gloves, and, depending on how close they will be to the cats, wear gowns.
“They believe the food may have been the source of the bird flu. So, they have thrown out around 8,000 pounds of food.”
The Hannah video suggests the food included dead poultry, potentially from infected farm flocks.
Red shouldered hawk. (Wikipedia photo)
San Francisco Zoo
The Wild Felid Advocacy Center is far, geographically if not chronologically, from the first facility for captive wildlife to experience a similar crisis.
Reported Aidin Vaziri of the San Francisco Chronicle on December 12, 2024, “The San Francisco Zoo temporarily closed its aviaries after a wild red-shouldered hawk tested positive for avian influenza.
“The hawk was found dead on the zoo’s grounds, officials told KQED, prompting them to take action to safeguard the zoo’s birds.
“The closure affects several indoor exhibits, including the African Aviary and the South American Tropical Rainforest & Aviary.
Kookaburra. (Beth Clifton photo)
Earlier zoo outbreaks
“The San Francisco Zoo’s actions,” Vaziri summarized, “follow similar measures taken by other institutions. In Arizona, a recent bird flu outbreak led to the deaths of a cheetah and a mountain lion at the Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium, while a red-breasted goose was found dead at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, prompting precautionary closures there as well.”
The animal losses at the Wildlife World Zoo also included a swamphen, an Andean goose, and a kookaburra. A white tiger reportedly tested positive for H5N1 exposure, but responded well to treatment.
Similar findings came from the far side of the world on October 2, 2004. According to the official Vietnamese news agency VNA, test results from the National Center for Animal Health Diagnosis confirmed that H5N1 had killed 47 tigers, three lions, and a panther during August and September 2004 at the My Quynh safari park in Long An province and the Vuon Xoai zoo in Dong Nai, near Ho Chi Minh City.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Domestic cats hit, too
H5N1 is also spreading through domestic cats, probably through contact with infected birds in most cases, but not always.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department on December 23, 2024 announced that it had “confirmed two cases of H5N1 bird flu in domesticated cats from two different households.
“After testing positive for influenza A, a rare occurrence in felines,” the announcement continued, “the infected cats developed severe neurological illness and sadly succumbed to the virus. The sources of infection are still under investigation.”
This came three days after Susanne Rust of the Los Angeles Times on December 20, 2024 reported that “Los Angeles County health officials have identified three more cats with presumptive H5N1; the source of the virus has not yet determined, but experts suspect raw meat.
“The three cats all lived in the same household. The cats lived exclusively indoors, according to health officials.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Raw milk connection
“Two other cats succumbed to the disease earlier this month after drinking recalled raw milk from Fresno-based Raw Farm LLC dairies,” Rust recalled.
“It is unclear how many cats have died since H5N1 began circulating in dairy cows earlier this year,” Rust wrote. “Cats are extremely susceptible to the virus, however, and dead barn cats are considered an early biological warning that a dairy has been affected by the virus.
“At one Texas dairy farm this spring,” Rust mentioned, “12 barn cats died after drinking infected raw milk. Sykes also noted a 2023 outbreak in South Korea, in which shelter cats ate pet food made with H5N1-infected raw duck. In one shelter, 38 of 40 cats died after eating the contaminated food.
“Last year,” Rust added, “the World Health Organization reported sporadic deaths of cats throughout areas where H5N1 bird flu was circulating, including at one location in Poland, where a cluster of 46 died; 29 of those animals were found to be positive for the bird flu virus.”
(Beth Clifton photo)
Cat food recall
Responding to an Oregon Department of Agriculture report linking the H5N1 death of a house cat to eating contaminated Northwest Naturals raw and frozen Feline Turkey Recipe cat food, Northwest Naturals on December 23, 2024 advised customers to dispose of two-pound bags of the cat food stamped with a best-by date between May 21, 2026, and June 23, 2026.
“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food,” Oregon state veterinarian Ryan Scholz told media.
“This cat was strictly an indoor cat,” explained Scholz. “Genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and the infected cat were exact matches to each other.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
More human cases
Mid-December 2024 also brought “the first presumptive positive human case” of H5N1 in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced on December 18, and the first human case in Iowa, the Iowa Department of Health & Human Services acknowledged on December 21.
Altogether, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention as of December 20, 2024 had acknowledged 64 confirmed human cases of H5N1, occurring in nine states, all of them linked to contact with either infected poultry or dairy cattle.
But word of yet another potential avenue for infection came on December 12, 2024 from a University of Glasgow, Scotland team led by professor of integrative virology Pablo R. Murcia.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Mongolian horses
Inspecting blood samples taken from healthy horses living in Mongolia, the Murcia team found antibodies to H5N1, they reported in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The findings indicate that horses not only can contract H5N1, but perhaps might be asymptomatic carriers.
“It is very important, now that we know these infections can occur in nature, that we monitor them to detect them very rapidly,” Murcia told Sky News correspondent Thomas Moore.
“Horses, like many other domesticated animals, live in close proximity to humans,” Murcia emphasized, “and if this virus was to establish in horses the probability of human infection increases.”
Beth & Merritt Clifton with friends.
Concluded Moore, “The team at the Medical Research Council-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research also believe horses could be a mixing bowl for new strains of flu.”
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