Mammals are infected with the Bird flu virus: the virus threatens cats

Scientists around the world are studying the behavior of the bird flu virus. They warn that the virus of "bird flu" began to be transmitted from one species to another. And now the opinion appeared that cats are now in serious danger, infecting each other with the H5N1 virus.

“It is precisely what we feared about people,” said Christian Walzer, professor of the Department of Zoology and Ecology of the University of Vienna. - Mammals are infected. The virus is transmitted from cat to cat. "

It is precisely such a mutation of the virus, which makes it possible to infect a person by a person, are afraid of the World Health Organization. Until now, the studies of the bodies of 91 people who became victims of "bird flu" around the world have not indicated that people could infect each other with this virus. Vienna specialist from Vienna Teresa Popov-Rupp, however, confirms that the H5N1 virus has the ability to "adapt to the owner."

The director of the National Center for the FREP of the World Health Organization and a professor of the Department of Virology at the University in Vienna, nevertheless, cannot confirm messages from Indonesia that the virus has become more aggressive and the incubation period has been reduced.

In Europe, the Asian type of virus is currently spreading, but the Siberian-Turkish.

The fact that cats are exposed by chance by chance, writes Die Presse . In one Thai zoo in 2004, tigers and leopards were fed raw chicken, while the birds were infected with the Bird flu virus. Wild animals not only fell ill themselves, but also infected the relatives.

Dutch scientists have found that domestic cats react in the same way. In a study published in the January issue of American Journal of Pathology, they show that the virus affects the lungs, as well as other cat organs. (Full text on the websiteinopressa.ru .)

In Austria, there is no data on the exact number of cats, only the number of families where “one or more cats” lives: throughout the country there are 820 thousand, of which 100 thousand are in Vienna alone. It is also not known how many of them are contained exclusively in the apartment and is not subject to temptation to hunt wild birds or chat with other cats.

The outbreaks of epizootics in one place or another surprise a Valzer’s wild animal specialist, as well as the fact that the virus primarily amazes the swans: "Cold and the search for open water spaces lead to the fact that they are very quickly distributed on a rather extensive territory."

The main flight of birds has not yet begun. Experts expect that this will happen in a few weeks - at the end of March. Migratory birds fly from Africa. From the south of the continent, as well as from Eastern, Central and West Africa. “There are hundreds of species of migratory birds: storks, kite, cranes, singing birds, birds of prey - this is only some,” says Walzer. No exact numbers can be called by their number. There are only approximate grades, the specialist notes.

This data is best backed up by facts in Israel, where observations are carried out for strategic reasons. During the span of birds, the sky over the country is darkened for several days and Israeli combat aircraft cannot rise into the air, because clashes with birds may be fatal for them. According to the organization of Society for Protection of Nature, about 500 million birds in the direction of the North flies over the country in the spring, they are returning in the fall. One of three routes to Europe passes over Israel. The other two - over Italy and Spain, notes the publication.

So far, in the places of wintering of birds, for example in Nigeria, a small number of cases of "bird flu" have been recorded. "The areas in which there are water, and it is there that the migratory birds winter are located in remote areas. Therefore, many thunder birds could simply not be detected," says Valzer.

In Europe, it was reported about new cases of the disease : in Slovakia and Romania it became known about new suspicions of the "bird flu". And in Austria, the alarm turned out to be in vain: the check of 18 birds in South Stiria did not reveal any suspicions of the Bird flu virus, after the H5N1 was found in three swans. The results of numerous analyzes taken from animals in Stiria, Burgenland and Lower Austria are still expected.

In view of these circumstances, in the dispute between the Minister of Health Maria Raukh-Kallat and Landrat Stepia Johann in the need for the need to introduce a widespread prohibition to produce poultry from closed premises, the federation prevailed. Vetinger urgently demanded the ban on, and on Thursday he was supported by Landratia, Carinthia, Joseph Martintz - he demands that the birds be kept locked in the whole of Carinthia. Vetinger says: "At the moment, we do not have migration of birds, the danger comes only from waterfowl."