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November 5, 2009

Pets, it turns out, can get the swine flu too

Our colleague Jill Rosen over a the Unleashed blog gives us the scoop on the Iowa cat who came down with, yes, you guessed it, the swine flu.

The cat recovered and officials believed the pet contracted the virus from someone in the household who was already sick from it. The H1N1 virus has been found in pigs, birds and ferrets too.

The American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Feline Practitioners are reminding pet owners that some viruses can pass from people to animals, so this wasn't unexpected. Note to cats and dogs: stay away from your sneezing owners.

Looking for more info on protecting your pets against the virus? Check out this piece by the NYT.

AP photo

Posted by Kelly Brewington at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Swine flu/H1N1

Comments

no one should treat their pets bad just because of this, they shouln't get rid of them or blame them either. They don't have the blame for what is happening with this swine flu.

Posted by: pet lover | November 5, 2009 7:12 PM

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About Picture of Health

Meredith Cohn has been a reporter since 1991, covering everything from politics and airlines to the environment and medicine. A runner since junior high and a particular eater for almost as long, she tries to keep up on health and fitness trends. Her aim is to bring you the latest news and information from the local and national medical and wellness communities.

Andrea K. Walker knows it’s weird to some people, but she has a fascination with fitness, diseases, medicine and other health-related topics. She subscribes to a variety of health and fitness magazines and becomes easily engrossed in the latest research in health and science. An exercise fanatic, she’s probably tried just about every fitness activity there is. Her favorites are running, yoga and kickboxing. So it is probably fitting that she has been assigned to cover the business of healthcare and to become a regular contributor to this blog. Andrea has been at The Sun for nearly 10 years, covering manufacturing, retail , airlines and small and minority business. She looks forward to telling readers about the latest health news.

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