Bird flu outbreaks are on the rise in Washington state, and one sanctuary has been hit hard: 20 big cats — more than half the facility’s population — died in a matter of weeks.
The Washington Wild Cat Advocacy Center announced the deaths on Facebook Friday. The nonprofit shelter is located in Shelton, about 22 miles northwest of Olympia.
“This is a huge nightmare. I never thought something like this would happen to us,” Mark Mathews, director and co-founder of the center, told CNN affiliate KOMO. “Maybe only in facilities where cats are in close proximity to each other, and our facility is over five acres.”
It’s unclear exactly how the big cats became infected with bird flu, but Matthews said the first deaths occurred around Thanksgiving.
The 20 animals that died included: five African servals, four lynxes, four cougars, two Canada lynxes, a Siberian and Bengal tiger hybrid and other big cats.
“Tabby, she’s my favorite tiger,” Matthews told KOMO. “Before Thanksgiving, we had 37 cats. Today, we have 17 cats, (of which) four are recovering.
The reserve has been quarantined and closed to the public to prevent further spread of bird flu, it said in a statement. The center said it is working with federal and state animal health officials to disinfect each enclosure and working with veterinarians to develop “prevention strategies while overseeing treatment to protect animal welfare.”
The shelter hopes to reopen in the new year, according to the center’s website.
The center said that while it was unclear how big cats became infected with avian influenza, the sanctuary said the virus is “mainly transmitted through respiratory secretions and bird-to-bird contact, and may also be transmitted by photographers.” Infection from carnivorous mammals that enter birds or other products.” its statement.
Cats are particularly susceptible to avian influenza, which can cause subtle initial symptoms that can “progress rapidly, often leading to death from a pneumonia-like condition within 24 hours,” the center said. Symptoms in pet birds include low energy, swollen body parts, lack of coordination and diarrhea, while cats and dogs may experience symptoms such as fever, lethargy and loss of appetite, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
“Usually when the vet comes out to do the immobilization, they start to feel better, and that was different with Harley (the mountain lion) because he made it very clear that he wasn’t feeling better after the treatment,” said shelter employee Julie Connolly Poe. Tell KOMO.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reported earlier this month that bird flu cases are on the rise across the state. It also confirmed that two mountain lions in another area of the state were infected with bird flu.
“(I’m) frustrated and a little shocked. You take such good care of them and then something unexpected takes its toll so quickly, it feels bad,” Connolly-Poe said. The center “just takes care of those who are recovering.”
Matthews told KOMO that nothing like this has ever happened in the 20 years the reserve has been open. The center is taking extra precautions to avoid further spread of bird flu and is preparing to disinfect all items.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that “it is rare for people to become infected with avian influenza viruses through contact with infected wild, stray, feral, or domestic mammals,” but if there is “prolonged and unprotected exposure” to avian influenza viruses , it is possible to be infected with avian influenza virus.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been two cases of avian influenza jumping from mammals to humans: one in 2016 involving a cat, and the other in 2024 involving a cow.
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