Bird flu virus in raw pet food. A growing concern

Add a third pet food company to the growing list of manufacturers whose raw cat food is suspected of having infected one or more cats with the highly pathogenic influenza virus, usually referred to as HPAI or H5N1.

Savage Cat Food

On February 17, 2025, Savage Pet Inc., a California-based company, notified its customers that Colorado State University Laboratory has tested sealed packets of Savage Cat Food, and had found evidence of HPAI in one of the three lot codes tested. The state lab reported the result as “non-negative.”

The state’s action was triggered by a complaint from a pet owner, whose cat contracted HPAI and recovered.

Lot #11152026 (chicken packets) was reported by Colorado as “non-negative” and the sample was sent to the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) for further analysis, including testing for live H5N1 virus.

Wild Coast Raw

Just three days earlier, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WADoA), in conjunction with the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA), alerted pet owners that several cats had contracted H5N1 infections in early February. Due to the severity of the illnesses, the owners of the cats opted to euthanize the animals.

The ODA collected samples from the cats before and after euthanization and recovered H5N1 virus from the animals, all of which were fed Wild Coast Raw pet food before becoming ill.

The Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and the NVSL confirmed the presence of H5N1 in the animals and in opened packages of the cat food.

Subsequent testing by the WADoA detected evidence of HPAI in sealed packages of one lot of Wild Coast pet food. Samples from this lot, reported by the state as “non-negative,” have been submitted to the NVSL for more detailed analysis.

A “stop sale” order has been issued in the state of Washington for two lots of Wild Coast LLC – Boneless Free Range Chicken Formula (Lots #22660 and #22664; Best by date of 12/2025).

Northwest Naturals

On December 24, 2024, Northwest Naturals recalled one production lot of its Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after the Oregon Department of Agriculture detected highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus in a opened package of the product.

The testing was carried out after a cat that had been fed the product died of bird flu.

According to an update released by the company, Northwest Naturals’ co-manufacturer was subjected to an FDA investigation that began in late December and concluded on February 7, 2025. The FDA was unable to identify the source of the H5N1 virus that had been found in the company’s raw cat food.

What’s with the ‘non-negative’ results?

eFoodAlert reached out to the WADoA for clarification of the meaning of a ‘non-negative’ result (versus a ‘positive’ result), and an explanation as to why the state acted as it did without having a fully confirmed lab result in hand.

A spokesperson for the WADoA provided the following explanation:

“Our state laboratory (WADDL) detected HPAI through PCR testing in the unopened pet food samples. Non negative results indicate the presence of H5. These samples have been forwarded to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) for H5N1 confirmation. As a result of Oregon’s results and our results, we’ve issued a public health alert and a stop-sale on affected product lots as a precaution.” 

How is the virus getting into the pet food?

This is the $64,000 question.

All three of these companies claim to use only USDA-inspected poultry meat in their raw pet foods. Indeed, Northwest Naturals’ products are manufactured in a USDA-inspected facility, according to the company.

The USDA states clearly that HPAI-infected birds do not enter the food supply. If that’s the case, the virus must be coming from somewhere else.

Two possibilities come to mind:

• The virus might be introduced into the production facility by wild birds roosting or flying about in the plant
• The virus might be introduced by infected rodents—rats or mice—entering the plant

Either one of these can, and should, be controlled through proper building maintenance and an appropriate pest-control program.

Why did these recalls not make it onto the FDA’s radar screen?

Of all the outstanding questions, this is the one I find the most worrisome.

All three of these companies appear to have shipped their products across state lines. This puts them under the jurisdiction of the FDA.

Under normal conditions, recalls initiated by FDA-regulated companies are listed in the weekly FDA Enforcement Reports, and recall effectiveness is—at least in theory—monitored by the agency.

Why have none of these three recalls shown up in the FDA Enforcement Reports?

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