Currently, experts in the field are calling for a study to be conducted to determine the likelyhood of the deadly H5N1 Bird Flu virus being passed to a human from a dog or a cat that becomes infected.

With migration a part of life, it is possible that sooner or later, an infected bird will make its way to the United States. That bird has the potential to infect thousands more birds and if one of those infected birds happens to become a cat’s breakfast, then that cat is also infected.
Currently world wide, there has not been a reported case of H5N1 dog or cat to human transmission, however this does not mean that it is not a possibility.

Walter Boyce at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine states that “Cats can serve as an intermediary to move the virus from essentially a wild bird environment into people’s houses.” Experts do admit that the possibility of the zoonotic spread is very unlikely but needs to be examined in more detail.