Pet Food Recalled After Cat Dies Due to Bird Flu Contamination

A feral cat sits on a sandbag barricade in Cyprus's capital, Nicosia, on Feb. 17, 2017. Iakovos Hatzistavrou/AFP via Getty Images

An Oregon-based company is voluntarily withdrawing batches of pet food from the market citing avian flu risk, with authorities warning citizens not to allow their pets to eat undercooked or raw meat items.

Morasch Meats from Portland is recalling Northwest Naturals brand 2 lb Feline Turkey Recipe raw and frozen pet food after samples “tested positive for a H5N1 strain of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus,” according to a Dec. 14 statement from the Oregon Department of Agriculture (OAD).

Testing confirmed that a house cat from Washington County consumed the recalled food, got infected by avian flu, and eventually died. The recall applies to products that have “Best if used by” days of May 21, 2026, and June 23, 2026.

Packaged in two-pound plastic bags, the products were distributed in the following U.S. states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington.

Northwest Naturals warned people that the “consumption of raw or uncooked pet food contaminated with HPAI can cause illness in animals.”

Customers who have bought the item should “immediately discard the product” and contact the place of purchase for a refund, the company said.

Dr. Ryan Scholz, a state veterinarian at the ODA, said they are “confident” that the infected cat contracted the flu after consuming the recalled item.

“This cat was strictly an indoor cat; it was not exposed to the virus in its environment, and results from the genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and infected cat were exact matches to each other,” Scholz said.

The department asked people to avoid giving raw and undercooked meat products to their pets.

Meanwhile, an HPAI outbreak was recently reported at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington. The pathogen was confirmed among half of the sanctuary’s big cats, the center said in a Dec. 21 Facebook post.

Twenty wild cats died from the infection, including five African servals, four bobcats, four cougars, two Canadian lynx, and a Bengal tiger.

“This devastating viral infection, carried by wild birds, spreads primarily through respiratory secretions and bird-to-bird contact and can also be contracted by carnivorous mammals that 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,” the center said.

The sanctuary has been put under quarantine and remains closed to the public. The center has taken stringent biosecurity measures and disinfection protocols.

Cats and Infections

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has also warned citizens in the state to avoid feeding Northwest Naturals recalled products to their pets, citing infection risk, according to a Dec. 24 statement.

The department asked people who have already fed their pets the recalled item or other raw meat and noticed any symptoms to get in touch with a veterinarian.

“Cats infected with H5 bird flu can develop severe illness that may include neurologic signs, respiratory signs or liver disease that can rapidly progress to death,” it said.

The health agency has confirmed bird flu infections in four house cats that consumed recalled raw milk. All four cats died. Three more potential cases are under investigation.

There have been multiple incidents of cats being infected by the avian influenza virus globally.

A recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detailed the case of an HPAI infection in two stray shelters in Seoul, South Korea.

“The cause of infection was suspected to be improperly sterilized raw food made from domestic duck meat,” the report said.

The viruses isolated from the cats contained mutations suggesting the microbes had adapted to mammals.

Last year, the CDC reported a bird flu outbreak among household cats in Poland. Many of the affected cats exhibited neurological signs such as seizures and paralysis, eventually becoming severely ill or ending up dead.

In April, the CDC reported multiple cases of bird flu in cats and dairy cattle in Kansas and Texas. The domestic cats were fed raw milk from infected cows and developed fatal systemic influenza infection, the CDC said.

Meanwhile, several avian flu incidents have been reported in individuals across the United States. Data from the CDC show 65 such confirmed cases as of Dec. 23.

California accounted for the bulk of them with 36 infections, followed by Washington with 11, Colorado with 10, Michigan with two, and Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin with one each.