USDA reports more H5N1 detections in mice and cats

In its latest updates, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported 36 more H5N1 avian flu detections in house mice, all in the same New Mexico county, as well as four more virus detections in domestic cats.

Earlier mouse detections were from poultry outbreak site

On June 4, APHIS first reported H5N1 detections in house mice from New Mexico’s Roosevelt County, and today it reported 36 more from the same location, raising the total to 47. Collection dates for the latest detections range from May 6 to May 12. 

In a notification from the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) on the earlier 11 detections in house mice and a red fox from Roosevelt County, New Mexico, officials said the animals were collected from a location where highly pathogenic avian flu had been detected in poultry.

Positive tests in cats from 4 states

Also today, APHIS reported four more H5N1 detections in domestic cats, including one from Oklahoma, which hasn’t recently reported the virus in poultry or in dairy cows.

The detection in Oklahoma occurred in Harmon County, located in the southwestern part of the state on the border with Texas. The cat is Oklahoma’s first detection in a mammal. The sample was collected on March 20, and the virus is a reassortant between the global 2.3.4.4b H5N1 clade and a North American wild bird lineage.

The three other H5N1 detections in domestic cats—sampled in late May— were in Michigan’s Clinton County, where H5N1 had been found in dairy herds, and in Idaho’s Jerome County, where H5N1 has been detected in poultry, alpacas, and dairy herds. The fourth new detection was from a cat from Colorado’s Morgan County. 

So far, the virus has been reported in 21 domestic cats.