Bird Flu and Raw Food: Should Dog Parents Worry About Avian Influenza?

The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI or H5N1) virus, also known as bird flu, has made headlines recently, and not just because of the risk to humans.

Parents are becoming increasingly worried about the potential risk to their pets, especially those who feed their dogs a raw food diet, as the number of cases of domestic pets contracting avian influenza appears to be increasing.

But should dog parents be worried about avian influenza? Exactly how much of a risk is feeding your dog raw food? And what should you do if you think your dog’s suffering from the illness? 

Dog Food Advisor spoke to a number of experts to find out more and answer your most pressing concerns regarding avian influenza. 

Bird Flu and Pets in the News

Over the past few years, a number of domestic pets have contracted the virus, including a flurry of cases towards the end of 2024. 

A cat in California tested positive for bird flu after consuming Monarch Raw Pet Food bought from a farmer’s market, and a cat died from bird flu after eating Northwest Naturals’ feline turkey raw frozen cat food in Portland, Oregon, which led to a product recall. 

Around the same time, there were five confirmed cases of cats getting bird flu from contaminated raw milk in Los Angeles County, taking the total number of confirmed cases of bird flu in domestic cats in the U.S. to 74 since 2022 (those that have been reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service — it’s believed there may be more cases unreported).

At the time of writing, no human cases have currently been linked to pet food, although sadly there has been one death linked to avian flu in Louisiana, in January 2025.

This follows a 2023 outbreak that saw 38 cats die of avian influenza in a shelter in South Korea. Scientists studied this incident and published their findings in Nature Communications, concluding that the outbreak illustrates the increased risk of inter-species spread of the disease, and the potential threat to humans. 

What is Bird Flu?

According to VCA Animal Hospitals, bird flu is the name commonly used to refer to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as avian flu. 

It says: “The current version of HPAI in the United States is H5N1 bird flu. Although H5N1 bird flu mainly affects wild migratory water birds and domestic poultry, bird flu viruses have been shown to spread less frequently to mammals, including humans and cats.”

Can Dogs Get Bird Flu?

Despite the recent bird flu outbreaks in cats, there has not been much information in the news about bird flu in dogs, so we asked Dr. Judy Morgan, DVM, CVA, CVCP, CVFT, about the risk to canines and what dog parents can do to reduce transmission.

The first question most dog parents will be asking is can dogs get avian flu?

“Most likely they can, as it can affect all mammals,” says Dr. Morgan. “Cats have more receptors to the avian flu virus, so they are more susceptible to serious illness. However, there have not been any reports of serious illness in dogs.

“I’m not worried about my dogs,” adds Dr. Morgan. “When a pet food company sources human-grade meats, they’re sourced from flocks that had testing and it was put into the human food chain. Therefore there shouldn’t be contaminated meat going into that food chain. 

“That’s why if you’re going to feed your dog raw it’s crucial to source your raw food from human-food sourcing so you know testing’s been done.”

What are the Symptoms of Avian Flu in Dogs?

The avian flu symptoms to look out for in dogs are: 

• Fever
• Lethargy
• Cough
• Runny nose
• Red eyes
• Lack of appetite
• Nasal or eye discharge

If you think your dog’s displaying any of these symptoms, see your veterinarian immediately.

As well as cats and humans, avian flu has infected a range of different mammals across the U.S., including dairy cattle, skunks, raccoons, bears, and dolphins. As mentioned, the likelihood of dogs contracting avian flu appears to be low, but despite this, precautions should be taken. These mostly concern contact with birds.

“Avoid having your dog around lakes and ponds with migrating ducks as they seem to be the biggest spreaders,” advises Dr. Morgan. “And do not let your dog explore dead birds.”

Risk of Avian Flu from Raw Dog Food

According to the Food and Drug Administration, “Dogs can also contract HPAI, although they usually exhibit mild clinical signs and low mortality compared to cats. At present, HPAI has not been detected in dogs in the United States, but there have been fatal cases in other countries.”

Despite this extremely low risk, the FDA is taking a cautious approach when it comes to raw food. The FDA encourages pet parents “to carefully consider the risk of this emerging pathogen before feeding their pets uncooked meat or an uncooked pet food product”. It advised people in December to avoid consumption of all raw milk and raw meat products from affected farms, and not feed them to their pets.

It has also recently announced updated guidelines for pet food manufacturers, which you can read about here.

Amy Zalneraitis, co-founder of raw dog food company We Feed Raw, believes it’s safe to feed your dog raw food if you’re purchasing from a reputable company that’s taking the right safety measures and has high-quality sourcing. 

“At We Feed Raw, the safety and quality of our food are always top priorities. We’ve had no issues of avian flu in our products, and we’re confident that We Feed Raw is, as always, safe to feed dogs.”

She adds that all the company’s meat comes from USDA-certified, human-grade suppliers who meet rigorous quality standards. 

“For poultry specifically, we work with suppliers who are part of the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP), which requires testing of flocks to ensure they’re free from diseases including avian flu. Flocks can only be harvested after testing negative, providing an additional layer of safety and assurance for our products.

“Our food is prepared in USDA-certified and inspected facilities that operate under some of the strictest safety and quality standards. This means the ingredients in our meals are held to the same level of scrutiny as those entering the human food supply.”

High-Pressure Processing and Avian Flu

As a dog parent, you might have heard of ‘high-pressure processing’ (HPP), a manufacturing process utilized in raw food production designed to minimize the risk of transmission of food-borne pathogens. 

This advanced, cold-pressure technology, when processed at the right temperature and with the right hold time, eliminates pathogens like salmonella, listeria, and E. coli while preserving the nutritional value of the pet food. 

There are concerns, however, that as avian influenza is a relatively new virus, the exact combination of pressure and time is yet to be determined to eradicate it in raw food processing.

“Research shows that HPP is effective at controlling highly pathogenic avian influenza, especially when applied at the level we use at We Feed Raw—87,000 psi for a four-minute hold,” says Zalneraitis. 

“While there aren’t specific studies on the H5N1 strain, similar research confirms HPP’s ability to manage avian flu pathogens.”  

For those of you who really like to dig into the stats, Mario González Angulo, PhD from the HPP-producing company Hiperbaric, provides some comforting data.

“Research published in scientific peer-reviewed journals has proven HPP to be very effective at controlling the HPAI H7N7 variant of the virus,” he says. “Specifically, processing chicken meat homogenates at 500 MPa (72.5 kpsi) for 30 seconds between 15 °C and 23 °C (60 °F and 73 °F) achieved a >5 log reduction of HPAI ¹. 

“Industry standards use even higher pressures (600 MPa/87 kpsi) and longer pressure-holding times (up to 180 or 240 seconds). This provides an additional safety margin to the already significant >5 log reduction reported at lower pressures applied for shorter times ². 

“Scientific research on the HPP inactivation of the H5N1 variant of the virus is not available, however, both HPAI subtypes (H7N7 and H5N1) belong to the same species of the genus Alphainfluenzavirus and differ only in the subtype of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins on the surface of their structure. These proteins play a role in infectivity, but their role in the pressure resistance of the virus is unknown. 

“Nonetheless, the H7N7 subtype has proven to be very sensitive to HPP.” 

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