Swine Flu – Can Pets Get Flu?



Swine flu is still in its infancy, and, so far, we have no evidence of infection in dogs or cats. While rare, pets can get flu viruses from other species. In fact, both cats and dogs have acquired avian flu, H5N1, on occasion.

Usually flu viruses stay within a species. That is, a dog flu will affect only dogs and an avian virus will affect only birds. As many of you already know, cats do not usually get human flu viruses . It is fairly unusual for a virus to jump species, but it does happen.

Cats and Dogs Can Get Avian Flu

A few years ago, scientists discovered that pet cats, wild cats and a few dogs had become infected with bird flu. In most cases, they had eaten a sick or dead bird, but there were some cats that had acquired the flu virus in some other way—contact with another sick cat or dog or contact with contaminated feces.

Avian flu, bird flu, H5N1 flu virus

Photo courtesy of Andrew Currie

Remembering that H1N1 swine flu is already noted for its ability to change its genetic structure quickly and jump from species to species, this is a concern for a number of reasons:

  • In theory, our pets could also get H1N1, since both H5N1 and H1N1 have avian genes—and cats were able to get the avian flu H5N1 virus.

  • Since many of us live closely with our pets (Many pet owners sleep with their cats or dogs.), there is the chance that a sick pet could infect its owners.

  • When scientists discovered bird flu infections in pets in Europe, dog and cat owners in France and Germany began abandoning their beloved pets to animal shelters by the hundreds, in the fear that the pets would bring the virus to them.

    In some cases, cats and dogs were abandoned to the streets. This poses a more dangerous issue. These wild cats and dogs could carry the virus from one area to another—and no one would even notice, until it was too late.

  • While none of us wants our pet to be sick, there is another danger we must be aware of. Some of the cats and dogs that were tested in Indonesia were carriers of the Bird Flu but they weren’t showing symptoms. In other words, they could spread the disease without becoming sick themselves. And that includes spreading it to their human families!

So, while swine flu has not sickened any dogs or cats to date, if you have a pet pig, I would be especially alert, as pigs are very likely to become infected if they are exposed to the swine flu virus. Pigs are a related species to this virus!

It is unusual for a virus to cross species, but the H1N1 swine flu virus has shown itself to be especially adaptable. And so it does require that we keep an eye on what it's doing.

It is very likely that, in future months, this volatile virus might jump again to another species (as it did to the herd of swine in Alberta, Canada recently)—either for a brief time, to mix genes and move on--or it might adapt to another species and become a threat to our pets.

Keep an eye on the news, and I'll let you know if I hear of any new developments!





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