USDA testing confirmed a house cat contracted H5N1 avian influenza and died after consuming the raw frozen pet food.
December 27, 2024
The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) is alerting pet owners that samples of Northwest Naturals brand turkey recipe raw and frozen pet food tested positive for a H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus.
Testing conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories and the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Oregon State University confirmed that a house cat in Washington County contracted H5N1 and died after consuming the raw frozen pet food, the ODA news release said. Tests confirmed a genetic match between the virus in the raw and frozen pet food and the infected cat.
“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food,” ODA State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said. “This cat was strictly an indoor cat; it was not exposed to the virus in its environment, and results from the genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and infected cat were exact matches to each other.”
The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and local public health officials are monitoring household members who had contact with the cat for flu symptoms. To date, no human cases of HPAI have been linked to this incident, and the risk of HPAI transmission to people in the state remains low.
Northwest Naturals, based in Portland, Ore., posted a statement on its website saying it is voluntarily recalling one batch of its Northwest Naturals brand 2 lb. Feline Turkey Recipe raw and frozen pet food after the HPAI detection and is conducting the recall in cooperation with ODA.
The company said the recalled product is packaged in 2 lb. plastic bags with “Best if used by” dates of 05/21/26 B10 and 06/23/2026 B1. The product was sold nationwide through distributors in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington, as well as in British Columbia in Canada.
Northwest Naturals urged customers who have purchased the recalled product to immediately discard the product and contract the place of purchase for a full refund. Customers may contact the company for additional information at [email protected] or 866-637-1872.
Since 2022, OHA has partnered with ODA through a One Health approach to investigate human exposures to animal outbreaks of avian influenza. They said this case serves as a reminder that consuming raw meat products or feeding them to pets can lead to severe illness, as raw meat may contain harmful pathogens like salmonella, listeria, Escherichia coli and H5N1. These pathogens are destroyed when meat is thoroughly cooked. The same is true with consumption of raw, unpasteurized milk, as pasteurization will eliminate any disease-causing pathogens in the milk, including HPAI.
Although Oregon has reported one confirmed human case of HPAI, there are no confirmed cases of the virus in dairy cows or cow milk. As a precautionary measure, ODA is testing milk from every commercial dairy across the state, according to its Dec. 11 announcement.
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