H5N1 updates sharpen concern around cats and Dutch dairy cattle

H5N1 surveillance is still turning up concerning signals across species. In Washington state, an outdoor cat tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza after what officials believe was exposure to wild birds, underscoring that feline spillover remains an active risk outside the better-known raw food exposure pathway. In the Netherlands, what first looked like an isolated cat event on a farm has widened: Dutch authorities reported H5N1 antibodies in one dairy cow in January 2026, and Scott Weese later noted that five cows on the farm had tested antibody-positive, suggesting prior exposure in cattle linked to the same farm investigation. Dutch officials said no active virus was found in the cow or milk samples collected to date. (wormsandgermsblog.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary teams, the update reinforces two practical points. First, cats remain a sensitive sentinel species for H5N1, with exposure risk tied to outdoor access, infected birds, raw poultry diets, raw milk, and farm environments. Second, the Dutch cow finding matters because it marks Europe’s first reported dairy-cattle exposure signal, even without evidence so far of the kind of active milk-associated cattle outbreak seen in the U.S. A recent systematic review found 607 reported feline avian influenza infections in the literature from 2004 to 2024, with a 71.3% fatality rate among RT-PCR-confirmed feline cases, helping explain why even single-cat detections draw attention. (academic.oup.com)

What to watch: Watch for follow-up Dutch testing on herd spread and any additional guidance for veterinarians on cat exposure histories, especially outdoor hunting, raw diets, and raw milk. (nvwa.nl)