The sanctuary removed 8,000 pounds of food that had been stored in a freezer to prevent any further infections, and it started a sanitation process, which could take months to complete.
“We have to go through and disinfect each habitat,” Mathews said. “Any straw or organic matter needs to come out and be bagged and then burned, and then we have to disinfect again. Then we have to let it set for a couple weeks.”
A Canada lynx is released in Schoolcraft County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.Credit: AP/File
Workers at the sanctuary have been wearing protective clothing and N95 masks, and they are sanitizing their shoes to prevent any virus particles that could remain from spreading.
Cats are particularly vulnerable to avian influenza. A new version of the bird flu virus, H5N1, emerged in 2020 and has been rapidly spreading around the world, infecting birds and mammals.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement this month that it had confirmed bird flu infections in “numerous” wild birds this fall, and had recently confirmed that two cougars in another area, Clallam County, had the H5N1 virus.
Last year, two outbreaks of bird flu spread in cat shelters in Seoul, South Korea, where investigators later determined the source to be raw duck meat fed to the cats.
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In California, bird flu has infected most of the state’s dairy cattle herds this year, with cows in 645 dairies testing positive for H5N1. There have been at least 61 human cases reported in the United States so far, with most of the individuals experiencing mild symptoms.
The Wild Felid Advocacy Centre in Washington takes in big cats who have not been properly cared for, or whose owners could no longer care for them.
In addition to the half-Bengal tiger, named Tabbi, and four cougars, Hooligan, Holly, Harley and Hannah Wyoming, the dead included an African caracal, named Crackle; two Canada lynx cats, Chuckie and P’uch’ub; a Geoffroy’s cat, Mouse; a Bengal cat, Pebbles; a Eurasian lynx, Thumper; and four bobcats and five African servals, according to the sanctuary’s statement.
“It looks like the virus has taken its course,” Mathews said. “We’re just trying to make the one that’s incapacitated now just a little stronger.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
