Domestic cats at risk of bird flu

Saturday, 18 July 2026

Domestic cats are at risk of catching the highly pathogenic bird flu recently identified in a bird on Petone beach.

With a local case of bird flu announced on Friday, now is the time to take steps to keep domestic cats inside and away from wild birds to minimise their chance of catching the deadly bird flu, a wildlife health expert says.

Brett Gartrell, professor of wildlife health at Wildbase Hospital at Massey University, said cats were particularly at risk of catching the virus detected in a bird on a Wellington beach this week.

“It is a real concern for people’s pet cats. As the virus becomes established in New Zealand, the opportunities for them to get infected will increase.”

Confirmation of a second case of bird flu nationally, in a Wairarapa hawk, comes just days after New Zealand’s first H5 bird flu case was detected in a brown skua found at Petone Beach.

Domestic cat deaths had followed bird deaths overseas, because the cats preyed on the sick and dying birds and became infected.

“Cats seem to be particularly susceptible to it, both domestic and wild cats – including lions and tigers,” he said.

“They seem to be more susceptible as a group to getting infected, as well as their carnivorous habits making them more likely to be exposed to it.”

Gartrell said current Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) advice was for people to consider bringing their pet cats indoors.

“Everyone is focused on the birds at the moment, because they will be the ones we see die first,” he said.

“It seems to infect the cat and stop. We haven’t seen any sustained cat to cat or cat to human transmission anywhere.

“One of the big risks with this virus is the spillover of the infection that comes from carnivores eating the dead birds. That’s something that’s been seen all around the world.

“In most cases if a carnivore is infected, they aren’t able to infect other mammals – it generally stops with that single animal.”

There have been reports of the disease killing a single bear, wolf or coyote, and isolated cases where sustained mammal to mammal transmission had happened. Those included a mink farm in Europe and dairy cows in the USA.

The cows had been infected from birds in their feeding troughs.

Dairy cow herds in the USA have been infected with the highly pathogenic bird flu virus, passing it on to humans. (File photo)

“That’s turned into a sustained dairy cow to dairy cow transmission, and people have been infected via contact with the dairy cows,” Gartrell said.

Marine mammals, including elephant seals and sea lions had been affected in South America.

“It seems to be able to spread between marine mammals,” Gartrell said.

“We’ve seen increased transmission of the virus as a result of not just birds moving around, but marine mammals moving around.

“For New Zealand’s wildlife that’s going to have a big impact if our sea lions get infected.”

Common garden birds like sparrows and blackbirds appeared more resistant to the virus than ducks and birds of prey.

“They can get infected and carry the virus,” Gartrell said of the garden birds.

In other countries the virus had started in coastal seabirds and moved inland from there.

MPI’s website said cats and dogs could get sick if they eat or interact with infected animals. Steps to help protect pets from bird flu include keeping cats indoors, preventing wild birds from accessing pet food and water, not letting pets eat or touch sick or dead animals, and keeping dogs on a leash, especially near wild birds.

“If your pet gets sick after interacting with wild birds, keep them away from children and other animals and contact your vet.”