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AVIAN INFLUENZA (50): INDONESIA (CATS), AFGHANISTAN, IRAN, SOUTH KOREA
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[1] Indonesia, cats
[2] Afghanistan
[3] Iran (Teheran), ecological park
[4] South Korea

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[1] Indonesia, cats
Date: Thu 8 Mar 2007
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Bloomberg.com [edited]
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aPZdWp9ru3ps>

Canary Gets Last Laugh: Study Probes Bird Flu in Cats
-----------------------------------------------
Cats should think twice before they swallow the canary, say 
researchers studying whether felines roaming the streets of Asia may 
increase the global threat of bird flu.

Domestic and stray cats that prey on birds in Southeast Asia may play 
a critical role in transforming avian influenza into a global 
pandemic, virus-tracking scientists say.

To investigate, researchers next month [April 2007] will begin the 
world's largest examination of bird flu in stray cats in Indonesia, 
where a survey found one in 5 felines carry the lethal H5N1 virus in 
some areas. Cats, because of their close interactions with humans, 
may provide a conduit for the transmission of the flu between birds and people.

"Cats eat birds and therefore can become infected by this virus and 
help it to mutate and adapt to mammals," said Andrew Jeremijenko, who 
headed an influenza surveillance project for the Naval American 
Medical Research Unit in Indonesia until last March [2006]. "Maybe 
there is a role that cats are playing, and we don't understand it yet."

Avian-flu experts have long viewed pigs as the mammals in which a 
pandemic virus may emerge because the farm animals can catch versions 
of flu that infect birds and humans. As a host for both types of the 
flu, pigs are one of several species in which the viruses combine and 
mutate, acquiring properties that make each year's seasonal flu 
different from the year before.

For the cat study, scientists led by the United Nations' Food and 
Agriculture Organization will examine feline habits and collect blood 
samples to test for exposure to the H5N1 virus. Disease trackers aim 
to collect data during the next 3 months, with preliminary results 
collated soon after, said John Weaver, a senior adviser with the 
agency in Jakarta.

Erasmus University may assist in helping determine how cats become 
infected, what damage the virus causes to their organs, whether it 
spreads among the felines and whether it has undergone any genetic 
changes, said Ron Fouchier, a virologist at Rotterdam, 
Netherlands-based Erasmus.

"We have yet to understand the epidemiology of the virus, how it 
crosses from different species," says Weaver. "If we miss the key 
component that these cats perhaps disseminate the disease, then we're 
not catching up with the game."

The H5N1 virus shares many characteristics with the Spanish flu that 
killed as many as 50 million people worldwide in 1918 and 1919. 
Researchers say the virus started in birds, until genetic changes 
allowed it to spread quickly in people. Cats may be a concern not 
just because they prey on birds but because in some parts of the 
world, they share food and beds with people.

"One thing we do not want is for this virus to become endemic in 
cats," Fouchier said on 27 Feb 2007 in a telephone interview. "As 
long as these are dead-end infections -- a cat eats a chicken and 
then dies -- it's not so much of a problem."

Fresh outbreaks in agricultural poultry and wild birds -- and not 
actually in canaries -- have been reported in the U.K., Japan and a 
dozen other countries in the past 4 months. Laos and Nigeria recorded 
initial human infections this year [2006], taking the global tally of 
reported cases to 278 since 2003. Of those, 168 were fatal, the World 
Health Organization estimates.

Indonesia has the highest death toll, with 63 lethal cases. The virus 
has been found in birds in 30 of the country's 33 provinces. The U.S. 
embassy in Jakarta last month [February 2007] warned citizens to 
avoid contact with wild and stray cats and to ensure that 
domesticated ones don't interact with sick or dying poultry.

"The prevalence of the virus is quite high" judging from preliminary 
tests on swabs of the cats' upper airways, C.A. Nidom, a scientist at 
Airlangga University in Surabaya, said in a telephone interview on 28 
Feb 2007. Nidom found H5N1 in 98 of 500 cats living near poultry 
markets in high-risk areas on the island of Java and in Lampung 
province on southern Sumatra island.

Cats are a much-loved animal among Indonesia's roughly 200 million 
followers of Islam. The religion considers mistreating animals a sin. 
A story told in the Hadith, a collection of sayings of the prophet 
Muhammad, says he cut off his sleeve rather than wake a cat that fell 
asleep on his robes.

Stray cats freely roam the streets of Indonesian cities, congregating 
around food markets, where they help keep down rodent populations. 
Only higher-income earners can afford to keep them as household pets 
because of the cost.

"People throw food to cats at the market so they don't starve to 
death," said Amah, who has sold rice in central Jakarta for more than 
40 years. "There are probably 50 of them living here," she said, 
watching 3 cats chew on food on the ground next to her stall at the 
Blora market.

Most of the cats infected with the virus don't show any symptoms, 
according to Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, deputy executive of 
Indonesia's national committee on avian flu control and pandemic 
preparedness. It's unclear whether a sick cat can infect a human. 
Nidom says he plans more research to determine whether felines can 
pass the illness to other species.

Domestic cats and other felines are at risk of infection from H5N1 if 
they prey on birds, studies published in March 2006 by researchers at 
2 Thai universities and a government research center showed. A 2005 
study showed the virus was probably transmitted between tigers in 
Thailand. Cat infections were also reported in Germany, Iraq, Russia 
and Turkey.

"It appears that this is a more significant problem than a one-time 
event," Fouchier of Erasmus said.

China this week said it had found the disease in chickens, geese, 
crows, hawks, owls, ducks, egrets, cormorants, cranes and gulls in 
the past year [2006].

At the moment, there is no evidence that cats are of any special 
significance in the maintenance and transmission of avian flu, 
according to Peter Roeder, an animal health officer with the FAO who 
helped Indonesia set up its bird surveillance.

"There may be some limited transmission, but it's a matter of whether 
that is significant in establishing virus transmission networks," 
Roeder said in a 28 Feb 2007 interview from Rome. "If we find some 
cause for concern -- which I doubt that we will -- then we would need 
to extend the study to other countries."

[Byline: Jason Gale and Karima Anjani]

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