Twenty big cats die of bird flu at sanctuary in Washington state

Twenty big cats, including a Bengal tiger, four cougars, a lynx and four bobcats, have died after contracting bird flu at an animal sanctuary in Shelton, Washington. The big cat deaths come as bird flu, a highly pathogenic avian influenza, has spread rapidly through poultry flocks and dairy herds in the US, infected and killed domestic cats, and caused a severe illness in a person in Louisiana. The big cats died between late November and mid-December at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center, according to the center’s director, Mark Mathews. “We’ve never had anything like it; they usually die basically of

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