Download RESERVE STATEMENT ON AVIAN FLU

STATEMENT ON AVIAN FLU
(last updated: 23/2/2006
annex last updated 01/02/2006)
The European Pet Food Industry would like to re-assure pet owners that the avian flu viruses do not
pose any threat to the safety and wholesomeness of pet food products.
1. Stringent import bans and border inspection controls exist in the EU since the first outbreaks in
Asian countries to ensure that infected poultry meat does not enter the European Union.
2. Also in case of an outbreak in any of the EU countries immediate action is taken by the EC and
national governments according to fixed protocols which safeguard that none of the diseased or
suspected poultry will reach the food or feed channel.
3. European and imported pet food contains only animal products which derive from slaughtered
animals passed as fit for human consumption; it is as safe as human food. All animal material
undergoes official veterinary control and all measures are taken to ensure that infected poultry
does not enter into pet food production.
4. It should also be noted that the avian influenza viruses are destroyed at 70°C and that prepared
pet food is treated at higher temperatures : Dry and semi-moist pet food at minimum 90°C,
cans, trays, pouches etc at minimum 110°C.
There is no risk of avian influenza infection for pet animals or for their owners from prepared pet food.
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Avian influenza and implications for human/pet health
1. There have been no confirmed cases of the H5N1 virus transferring from human to human. The
human cases worldwide have been caused by very close contact with infected domestic poultry
exacerbated by unhygienic conditions, i.e. people “living with their poultry” and being directly
exposed to their excreta (or blood in case of slaughter).
2. The World Health Organization also states that “the species barrier is significant: the virus does
not easily cross from birds to infect humans. Despite the infection of tens of millions of poultry
over large geographical areas for more than two years, fewer than 200 human cases have been
laboratory confirmed.”
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avianinfluenza_factsheetJan2006/en/index.html
3. Dutch researchers have found that under very extreme laboratory1 conditions, cats can acquire
H5N1 avian influenza2. The study showed that the cats could contract the virus through the
pathogen being artificially introduced to their airways and through them eating birds infected
under laboratory conditions. Under normal conditions cats or dogs have not acquired the virus,
and such cases have not been reported, apart from exceptional cases in Thailand of zoo animals
(tigers fed with infected meat products) and two cats exposed directly to very high
concentrations of the virus.
4. The recent discovery of a dead cat infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus on the German
island of Rügen is currently under further investigation by the German authorities and scientists.
Until further clarification of this isolated single case and in accordance with the German
authorities, as a precautionary measure cats living with their owners in areas with an incidence
of avian influenza should be kept in-house to avoid them being in contact with infected wild
birds.
1
Cats received 2.5 x 104 times the median tissue culture infectious dose
2
Kuiken T, et al (2004) Avian H5N1 influenza in cats. Science 306 :241
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5. Cat owners should however be reassured that even in the high incidence countries in South-East
Asia since the outbreaks of avian influenza more than two years ago, and despite the local close
contacts with poultry and humans, cats did not play any epidemiological role in the propagation
of the infection, confirming the FAO findings hereafter.
6. The Food and Agriculture Organization consider that apart from infected swine, other mammals
are not are not involved in the epidemiology
http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/subjects/en/health/diseases-cards/avian.html
7. Scientists, such as Professor Paul Hunter, professor of health protection at the University of
East Anglia in the UK, based on the experiences of avian influenza over the past years clearly
states: "The risk of your cat getting bird flu from a bird is small, the risk of your getting it from
your cat is equally small. A small risk within a small risk is a very small risk."
8. Pet birds kept at home are not at risk as they do not have contact with infected birds in nature.
Birds kept in open air cages (in gardens etc) should as a precautionary measure have protection
against the possibility that wild bird droppings can enter the cages.
9. Pet owners are advised to continue with their normal pet care routine ensuring they adhere to
normal hygiene practices at all times.
10. In case of any additional questions contact your vet.
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