14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists warned people living in areas where bird flu has been found in birds to keep their cats indoors, because they may have an important role in transmitting the disease.
Laboratory tests showed that cats can become infected with the virus and can also transmit it to other cats, although it remains unclear whether they can transmit it to people or poultry. Virologist Albert Osterhaus and colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam said they know little about the behavior of the H5N1 virus in cats and it is difficult to establish the danger of such an infection.
In areas where the presence of the virus was reported, cats should be kept away from infected birds or their droppings and those suspected of infection should be quarantined and tested. Animals such as dogs, foxes, ferrets and seals may also be vulnerable to infection, researchers added.
"We have to take a number of precautionary measures. We need to keep in mind that mammals can be infected and that they can spread the disease, in principle," Osterhaus added. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommended that cats within 6 miles of a verified H5N1 infection in birds should be kept indoors.
Meanwhile, a 12-years-old boy in Cambodia died of bird flu and a baby girl in Egypt has become infected with the virus. The boy, who came from the southeastern province of Prey Veng, died on Tuesday night, according to a representative of the World Health Organization. Egypt announced its latest case in a baby girl from the south of the country whose father raised birds in his home.