Medical experts recently confirmed that your cat can give you bird flu.

Meaning you can catch a potentially fatal disease from that ball of warm fur who sleeps next to (or on) your head at night and whom you love more than life itself. All of which makes it more important than ever to protect your cat (and all of your pets) from getting bird flu in the first place.

Bird flu, also known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, most recently surfaced in this country in 2021 and is caused by the H5N1 strain. Before that, other strains like H5N2 and H5N8 briefly circulated in the U.S. in 1983, 1984 and 2014. Infectious diseases experts at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) contained the 2014 outbreak by culling 48 million domestic birds that year. But the strain we are currently fighting has yet to be contained, despite the culling of more than 500 million birds worldwide since 2021.

Experts in both human and animal medicine are concerned about the virus for many reasons.

Why are medical experts concerned about the bird flu?

First, birds are highly efficient and effective disease spreaders. Birds do not respect borders, fences or customs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries closed their borders to stop the spread of the disease. This is not an option when infectious wild birds routinely migrate across thousands of miles with ease.

Second, bird flu is much more deadly than COVID-19. Infectious disease experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cite a historical fatality rate of 52% for bird flu in humans. Most recently, a study of 12 human cases of bird flu reported worldwide over the past 10 months found that a quarter of those infected died of the disease. These are huge percentages when compared to COVID-19, which had a fatality rate of roughly one percent.

Third, experts are concerned because there are so many vectors – or carriers – for the disease. COVID-19 would very rarely infect pets and other animals, and there was minimal to no risk that those animals would infect humans. This is not true of bird flu, which has already been documented to have been transmitted from dairy cattle to humans, and from cats to humans as well as other mammals.

And finally, concern is great because bird flu is already in our food supply. Health officials have documented the presence of bird flu virus in raw cat food chicken, uncooked eggs and unpasteurized milk. A broken, deactivated virus has been found in 1 out of 5 samples of pasteurized milk. While COVID-19 may have disrupted the supply chain and caused food prices to rise, it was never present in the food supply and never threatened to infect people through their nourishment.

To learn more about bird flu, how it can affect people and their cats – and how worried we all should be – we talked with Dr. Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention and control for UCHealth, and a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine.

Why doesn’t bird flu just affect birds?

Influenza, or “flu,” is a form of viral infection of mammals. There are several types of flu, and some originate in humans while others originate in other animals. The dangerous thing about flus is that they have a propensity to be “zoonotic,” meaning they can infect humans as well as animals. And once they get into a human, they ‘look under the hood’ and study our physiology, looking for ways to make it easier to infect, or transfer themselves, to other hosts, including other human beings. Which is why every time an animal flu crosses the divide and infects a human, the experts get a little more worried.

“Believe it or not, animal versions of the flu (swine, equine, human, just to name a few) often pass back and forth,” Barron said. “There’s enough commonality in these flus, all of us have potential receptors so we can have these viruses go back and forth between humans and other hosts.”

And that swapping gives the virus a chance to mutate and become more effective at infecting people and spreading to other hosts. Evolution demands viruses transform to survive, just like us. And every time an animal virus infects a human host, the virus has a chance to evolve a little more.

Does that mean all animals’ responses to bird flu will be the same?

No. Some animals catch the bird flu and get a little stuffy nose like pigs and goats, and some animals die at alarming rates like big game cats and seals.

“How the virus enters the body may be the same,” (for instance, respiratory droplets),” said Barron, “But the body’s response to the agent can be very variable. Just like it’s variable when people get the flu, some get very sick and some are hardly affected.”

How sick do people get when they catch the bird flu?

That can vary, and that has Barron worried.

“We just aren’t monitoring closely enough these days,” she said. “We need to track infections and see how sick people are getting, if they’re dying, and if they’re spreading it.”

U.S. health officials aren’t doing mass testing for bird flu, and surveillance of the virus is patchy, often depending on what state people are in. And that means that we don’t have the information we need, Barron said

For instance, in Colorado in 2024, there was an outbreak of bird flu among dairy cattle in Weld County. This wasn’t the only area or the only state to have infected dairy cows. A whopping 875 herds across 16 states tested positive for the virus that year. And during that time, not only did the cows get sick, but the workers who helped milk and care for the livestock got sick too. Those workers were not consistently tested and surveilled by the states’ health departments, and it is unknown how sick they became or whether they transmitted the disease to other humans or animals in their homes. Tracking bird flu becomes even more complicated should the agricultural workers be undocumented immigrants who may fear seeking medical care.

Some reports from infected dairy workers said they developed mild respiratory infections and conjunctivitis. But photos of the conjunctivitis caused by bird flu show eyes that are dark red and hemorrhaging, not a schoolkid’s case of pink eye.

Reported fatality rates for bird flu vary widely. The CDC website lists the historic fatality rate for bird flu at 52%, which means it kills just over half of the people who contract it. But the U.S. has had 71 human cases reported since 2024 and only 2 reported deaths, which is a much, much lower rate. And a recent study of 12 human cases internationally during 10 months in 2025-26 found 3 of the patients died, but none of those were in the U.S. Maybe the variation is due to the quality of health care available where the patient contracts the disease, but no one knows for sure because the disease surveillance is lacking.

“We just aren’t getting the information and data that we need to know these things,” said Barron.

What other diseases can your cat give you?

“It’s not unheard of for a cat to pass a disease to a person. For instance, people can get plague (as in Bubonic) from cats, as well as toxoplasmosis,” said Barron.

But bird flu is more concerning at this point because plague (Yersenia Pestis) and toxoplasmosis have both been around for centuries. Humans are not immune to them, but we do have some immunity built up. Bird flu is different. It’s a novel virus, like COVID-19. So, we don’t have any immunity built up. So, we could get very, very sick.

Can your dog get bird flu?

Yes, dogs can get bird flu. But to date, we don’t have confirmation they can pass it to people. For the most part, dogs get an upper respiratory infection and are lethargic. In some isolated and serious cases, they get neurological symptoms.

“Close proximity is all infection takes. There are no known mammals who are immune to bird flu,” said Barron.

What other animals does bird flu infect?

Bird flu has infected 485 bird species and 48 mammal species. It has been confirmed in sea lions, mink, dolphins, foxes, tigers, dogs, and a host of others. Even polar bears have caught bird flu.

“Essentially any animal that lives in close proximity to an infected bird can catch bird flu,” said Barron. “It makes sense cats were identified early as a host. Cats hunt birds, ingest them and bring birds home as presents for their owners. That sort of contact makes them very susceptible.”

Multiple species have caught bird flu. Why does the spread to many different animals make experts so nervous?

Every time the virus infects another animal, it takes a step closer to humans. Humans share 60% of their genome with birds. We share 80% with cows. We share 90% with cats. Dogs and humans share a whopping 94% of our genomes. Because viruses mutate – and the more they mix, the more they mutate – the more species the virus hops through, the more likely it will evolve to be highly infectious and highly pathogenic.

What about the food supply? Is it safe?

As long as you cook everything, it is. Representatives from the National Chicken Council insist that bird flu is not a foodborne illness. But food safety experts are more cautious, pointing out that, like salmonella, raw or undercooked meat could pose a health threat where bird flu is concerned. Indeed, there are documented cases where cats caught bird flu from eating infected raw meat in a commercial pet raw food diet, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason the same couldn’t happen to a human.

CDC infectious disease experts warn that the virus can be transmitted in unpasteurized dairy products. And FDA experts have found broken bird flu virus in milk for sale at the grocery store – and have advised the general public to avoid unpasteurized milk and cheeses made from unpasteurized milk (cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano, Gruyere and traditional English Cheddar.) Recent studies have shown that roughly 4.4% of U.S. adults consume raw milk at least once a year; it is unknown how many Americans consume raw-milk cheese annually.

The USDA confirmed the detection of bird flu in commercial table egg layer flocks in Michigan and Texas in April of 2024, which prompted the FDA to issue a notice to the general public advising that the chances of catching bird flu from eggs were “low risk,” especially if the public observed “safe food handling” protocols and cooked eggs and raw meat to the recommended temperature. It should be noted that the FDA advises cooking eggs until both the white and the yolk are firm.

“Given the risks, I think avoiding raw meat and dairy products is a no brainer,” said Barron. “I always read the labels on cheese I am purchasing to make sure they are made with pasteurized milk.”

How does a cat catch bird flu?

“A cat can catch bird flu from contact with an infected bird, an infected house mouse, an infected dairy cow, another infected cat or also by eating raw chicken or meat, unpasteurized milk or other dairy products, or raw eggs,” said Barron. People are the same. They can contract bird flu through proximity to an infected animal or through raw food products from an infected animal.

What happens to your cat when it catches bird flu?

The CDC reports that cats show symptoms such as fever, lethargy, diminished appetite, conjunctivitis, runny eyes and nose, labored breathing and neurological symptoms.

“The symptoms that I’ve heard about the most are the neurological ones,” said Barron, “Things like loss of balance or coordination, seizures, tremors and blindness.”

Domestic cats who contract bird flu have a 67% chance of dying from it.

What should I do if I’m seeing possible symptoms of bird flu in my cat?

If you see symptoms in your cat and suspect bird flu, don’t panic. But do act quickly. First, put on gloves, a long-sleeved shirt, and a face mask, then put your cat into a carrier. Call your veterinarian and tell them you want to bring your cat in for testing.

Veterinarians ask that clients with potentially infected cats inform them before arriving at the clinic, so they can set up an isolation area for your pet. Because bird flu is infectious to many types of animals, a scenario in which an infected cat sits in a waiting room with other susceptible animals should be avoided at all costs.

“Be specific about what kind of contact your cat has had with birds, is it an outdoor cat or strictly indoor, that’s important for your veterinarian to know,” said Barron.

I’ve been feeding my cat (or dog) a raw diet. Should I stop?

Yes. The CDC officials do not recommend feeding raw food to pets. In addition to bird flu concerns, CDC experts cite dangers of salmonella, E. Coli and listeria. In addition, there have been documented cases of humans who have caught bird flu from cats that were eating raw food diets.

How could I catch bird flu?

“The most common way people are catching bird flu these days is through backyard poultry. Wild birds infect backyard flocks and then the people who own them catch it by exposure our handling of the infected dying or dead birds. Additionally, there are people with outdoor cats who are exposed and become infected, and people who work in an industry that exposes them: like poultry or cattle farms/processors or dairies,” said Barron.

There have also been documented cases of viral infection of animals (and potentially humans) through eating raw chicken or dairy products, including milk and eggs.

Can bird flu be fatal to humans?

“Yes, but not in all cases. I don’t think we know how dangerous it is,” said Barron. “The resources that were previously allocated to the tracking and analysis of infections across the country have been stopped. In the past, as a country, we were diligent about assessing things like this, but that’s not happening now, and that’s unfortunate.”

Are you more concerned with bird flu or Ebola?

“I’m more worried about bird flu than I am about Ebola. Yes, Ebola is incredibly deadly and difficult to manage, and it’s very dramatic. But that’s not happening in this country. Here, we have 100,000 chickens dying and it’s not making news,” said Barron.

Experts point out that bird flu has much more potential to take off to pandemic proportions than Ebola because of several factors. First, bird flu has a higher capacity for mutation and spillover. Ebola is less likely to spread because its transmission occurs primarily through direct contact with bodily fluids. In addition, Ebola has limited crossover into animal reservoirs – usually limited to bats, antelope, and some nonhuman primates. Bird flu, on the other hand, is currently present in hundreds of species, which increases its chances of spillover and mutation.

Will getting a flu shot help with bird flu?

“It’s being recommended for a couple reasons,” Barron said. “First, if you can stop people from getting the normal strain of influenza A, then we’ll have fewer ‘vessels’, if you will, for the bird flu to get into and mix with the human flu, which would make it easier to contract.

“Second, there’s a hope that there’s enough cross reactivity that, if you caught the bird flu and had gotten a flu shot, you would have a diminished infection. It may not 100% preventative of an infection and it may not protect you at all, but the risk benefit analysis is that it’s worth a shot …. Literally.”

Will bird flu cause the next pandemic?

It’s certainly possible. Scientists are raising the alarm that our inability to control the bird flu virus makes it quite possible that bird flu could cause the next pandemic. And they think it will happen soon. Experts at the Global Center for Health Security in Glasgow summed it up this way: “The trajectory is troubling, the data patchy and the future uncertain.”

Barron agreed with this sentiment.

“I think it obviously has the potential to be our next pandemic. I think it’s very much something we need to pay attention to. Humans who have become infected with bird flu can get quite sick. And it doesn’t take a lot for things like this to tip over into the general population. We don’t have immunity because it’s a novel virus like COVID-19, so it could be very bad,” Barron said.

UCHealth doctors have treated a patient with bird flu. What advice can you give us based on this case?

“The case we had was really severe. The testing sort of fooled people into thinking the patient didn’t have the flu,” Barron said. “The general rule of thumb was that if you suspected a patient had bird flu, we would test for Influenza A, and the patient would be positive. In this case, the patient was negative for Influenza A on the standard nasal swab obtained for testing.

“We only found the bird flu when we did a deep bronchial wash. So, it’s possible that the timing of the Influenza A test was after the virus had cleared the patient’s nostrils. Anyway, what’s important in that case was that the patient had backyard chickens, and they all suddenly died. That’s a big deal. The patient didn’t think the chickens had anything to do with the illness and didn’t immediately tell us,” said Barron.

“So, I’d just like people to be aware that if they have backyard chickens, and they all suddenly die, and you feel like you have the flu, that’s important. And if you see dead birds in your neighborhood and you come into contact with them, like when prying them out of your cat’s mouth, that’s important to tell your doctor. “