An Oregon firm that sells pet meals throughout Washington has issued a recall of a uncooked, frozen product contaminated with extremely pathogenic avian influenza virus, or H5N1.
The Northwest Naturals canine and cat meals was found to be contaminated after a cat in Washington County, Ore., died.
The Oregon Division of Agriculture mentioned exams confirmed a genetic match between the virus within the turkey within the uncooked and frozen pet meals and the contaminated cat within the county that features a part of Portland.
“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Natural raw and frozen pet food,” mentioned Ryan Scholz, the Oregon state veterinarian.
“This cat was strictly an indoor cat,” he mentioned. “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.”
Oregon public well being officers are monitoring the individuals who lived with the cat for flu signs.
Northwest Naturals in Portland has voluntarily recalled the contaminated product, its 2-pound Feline Turkey Recipe uncooked frozen pet meals bought in plastic baggage. The contaminated batches had “best if used by” dates of 5/21/26 B10 and 6/23/2026 B1.
The product is bought as cat meals and as a protein increase topper for canine, based on its packaging.
Washington, Idaho gross sales
Clients who’ve the product of their freezers ought to discard it and get in touch with the shop the place they bought it for a refund.
If their pet ate any of the product with the “best by” dates which were recalled, Northwest Naturals recommends contacting a veterinarian and monitoring the pet intently.
Northwest Naturals mentioned it solely buys human-grade uncooked meals for its pet merchandise.
To keep away from the unfold of the avian influenza virus, the Oregon Division of Agriculture recommends that individuals and their pets not eat uncooked or undercooked meat merchandise or uncooked dairy merchandise.
Completely cooking meat can destroy not solely the fowl flu virus but additionally almonella, listeria and E. coli, the company mentioned.
Pasteurizing milk additionally eradicated disease-causing pathogens, together with the fowl flu virus, it mentioned.