PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — A Portland-based pet food company issued a recall on one of its products after a cat in Washington County contracted bird flu and died after eating the food, the Oregon Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday.
Morasch Meats Northwest Naturals brand of Turkey Recipe raw and frozen pet food tested positive for a strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus, officials warned.
The recall comes after tests conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Oregon State University confirmed that a house cat in Washington County contracted the virus after eating the raw and frozen food and tests confirmed a genetic match between the virus in the food and the infected cat.
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“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food,” said ODA State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz. “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.”