All About Bird Flu

http://www.all-about-bird-flu.net/bird-flu-info.php ^

[Slings and Arrows]

It looks like dogs are not susceptible, but cats are.

See post #4 for details. Yikes!

[Thanks to LucyT for the heads-up.]

[Grendel9]

At this point, I have no idea!
But it's pretty obvious that we
do have to start taking this
transition of the "flu" seriously.
The articles don't say, but I get
the idea that the wild birds'
droppings fall onto the feed
yards of the poultry/zoos/pens.
The infected poultry have to be
scratching the ground, causing the
virus to fly up into their lungs.
They describe humans contracting
the disease...by handling/ruffling
the feathers of the diseased birds.

[Grendel9]

Now you've hit upon another debatable
point. I've read/heard on the news
repeatedly that the disease is NOT
transferred through eating cooked
poultry, but only through close contact
while the birds are fully feathered.
Would the zoo have fed their tigers
whole uncooked chickens? Well, come
to think of it, they feed them uncooked
horse meat, so maybe they would.

[Kaylee Frye]

Lots of people feed their cats and dogs raw meat - it's called the raw food diet:

http://cats.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/rawfooddiet.htm

Personally, I don't have the time or inclination, but I look at it as a fascinating trend.

And yes, I do believe that zoos feed animals a majority of raw food. Here's an example:

http://www.bigcatrescue.org/white_tigers.htm

Unfortunately, you have to scroll way down to find this:

Tigers live for up to 20 years, Yates said. They're noisy even after being spayed or neutered. They eat 15 to 20 pounds of raw meat a day.