As cats throughout Southern California die from eating human and dog food infected through the H5N1 fowl flu virus, one puppy proprietor has determined to combat again — the usage of prison recourse to procure monetary restitution for the tens of hundreds of greenbacks he says he spent looking to save the lives of his 3 puppy cats.On Wednesday, legal professionals for Joseph Journell — a San Bernardino resident who mentioned two of his 4 cats died and a 3rd was once hospitalized for greater than week after eating uncooked milk containing the H5N1 virus — despatched a letter to Mark McAfee, proprietor of Fresno-based Uncooked Farm LLC, tough McAfee “stop all verbal exchange with Mr. Journell and reimburse him” for the cash Journell spent on veterinary products and services, misplaced wages and “different out-of-pocket bills.”Since Dec. 1, a minimum of 11 California area cats have died on account of eating infected uncooked milk and uncooked dog food. Seven had been reported in Los Angeles County, two in Santa Barbara County and Journell’s two in San Bernardino County. 
Joseph Journell says his cats Alexander, 14, left, and Tuxedo, 4, proper, died in November of H5N1 fowl flu after consuming uncooked milk from Uncooked Farm LLC. Cleopatra, middle, didn’t drink the milk and didn’t get in poor health, he mentioned. (Joseph Journell) Mavens say that is most likely an unlimited undercount, as many veterinarians and puppy homeowners are ignorant of the relationship of uncooked milk and meat to H5N1 fowl flu and the original sensitivity of cats to this actual virus.Since the most recent iteration of the virus first gave the impression in North The united states in 2021, flora and fauna officers estimate that loads of cats — wild and domesticated — have died on account of an infection, together with 20 animals at a large cat sanctuary in Washington State in December.Certainly, for the reason that virus was once first reported in dairy cows in March 2024, one of the vital sentinel indicators {that a} farm has been inflamed is the presence of useless barn cats that drank infected uncooked milk.In past due November, Santa Clara County well being officers detected the virus in industrial samples of Uncooked Farm uncooked milk. The discovering was once showed through state public well being officers and a voluntary recall temporarily adopted. Over the following week, extra samples examined sure, and on Nov. 29 the California Division of Meals and Agriculture suspended gross sales of uncooked milk merchandise from the Fresno-based dairy.It was once ahead of the primary recall was once introduced that Journell mentioned he bought the tainted milk — two gallons on Nov. 20 from Nutrition Town Well being Meals in San Dimas — that made his cats unwell. He has pictures of the recalled milk boxes and lot numbers.Journell mentioned he believes that uncooked milk has distinctive well being advantages — together with immune gadget enhancers and useful probiotics — and till the incident along with his cats, he incessantly fed on about 3 gallons every week. He mentioned he began sharing it along with his cats ultimate 12 months, when the oldest — Alexander, 14 — started shedding weight. He concept the uncooked milk may assist.Journell mentioned it did: Alexander won 3 or 4 kilos after a number of weeks of consuming the milk. 
Journell mentioned his 14-year-old cat Alexander died on Thanksgiving Day of H5N1 after consuming uncooked milk. (Joseph Journell) Journell then started giving it to all of his cats. All however one — a shy, younger feminine named Cleopatra — took to it.For months, the whole thing was once going simply wonderful. However within the days following his Nov. 20 acquire, he spotted that Alexander was once “off.”“He wasn’t doing too excellent,” mentioned Journell, noting that Alexander drank a lot more of the milk than the opposite cats. “He’d leap at the mattress and simply put his head down. I believed, what’s improper?”So the next week, Journell introduced the cat to a veterinarian, who identified Alexander with pancreatitis and despatched him house with antibiotics. Tomorrow, Alexander grew sicker, so Journell took him to an emergency vet sanatorium about an hour south in Perris, the place the cat’s temperature had dropped alarmingly and he was once positioned in an incubator. He died from center failure on Thanksgiving Day.It was once at this level that Journell regarded as the uncooked milk because the conceivable perpetrator — even supposing he suspected a bacterial an infection, no longer H5N1.He introduced his two different milk-drinking cats to the vet to get them checked, and was once despatched house with antibiotics and fluids. 
Journell and Large Boy on Thursday in San Bernardino. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Instances) On Nov. 30, one in every of his different cats, a tender black-and-white named Tuxedo, started vomiting steadily and profusely. Alarmed, Journell raced him to the emergency vet sanatorium — one hand at the steerage wheel, the opposite within the provider, petting Tux to stay him calm.“He began convulsing, and I used to be petting him and looking to calm him down,” recalled Journell. “Then he stopped. His frame comfortable. I believed he had calmed down. I believed he was once alive. However he had died.”Journell returned house and took the 3rd raw-milk-drinking cat’s temperature; Large Boy had a fever. This time, Journell went to a consultant in Ontario who was once in a position to diagnose and successfully deal with the cat. 
Journell mentioned his 4-year-old cat Tuxedo died on learn how to the emergency vet. (Joseph Journell) Journell mentioned he reached out to McAfee on Dec. 3, to peer if he could possibly assist.It was once McAfee who first discussed the virus, mentioned Journell, who had believed the sicknesses have been associated with bacterial infections, akin to listeria or salmonella. And in line with Journell, McAfee confident him by means of textual content that his cats couldn’t get the fowl flu virus from the milk.“He mentioned the avian flu can’t live to tell the tale in uncooked milk, that inside a pair hours of refrigeration the bioactives in uncooked milk will kill any virus. That by the point it will get to the shop, it’s already been refrigerated for an afternoon or two, so there must be no virus,” recalled Journell of the change. “He additionally mentioned his cats drank the uncooked milk always, and not were given in poor health.”The Instances asked to study the textual content change from Journell; he declined, mentioning his suggest’s recommendation. 
Mark McAfee, proprietor of Uncooked Farm LLC in Fresno, holds a container of milk. (Tomas Ovalle/For The Instances) Journell mentioned he informed the veterinarians taking good care of Large Boy in regards to the dialog he had with McAfee, and so they informed him there was once no proof to enhance McAfee’s statements. However, they mentioned they’d deal with Large Boy for each avian flu and for a bacterial an infection. The cat was once given Tamiflu (a remedy identified to be efficient for fowl flu in tom cats) and antibiotics. Large Boy sooner or later recovered — he spent 8 days within the medical institution — however misplaced regulate of his hind legs for a number of weeks and his imaginative and prescient was once, and nonetheless is, impaired, Journell mentioned.Journell mentioned he needed to get the cat a “wheelchair”-type instrument for Large Boy, and needed to rent caretakers to generally tend to him whilst Journell was once at paintings.Along with treating Large Boy for the flu, veterinarians took urine samples on Dec. 4 and despatched them to Cornell College’s diagnostic laboratory. On Dec. 6, the pattern examined sure for H5N1 fowl flu. A 2nd check carried out through a U.S. Division of Agriculture laboratory showed the presence of the virus on Dec. 18.Requested in regards to the check effects and letter despatched through Journell’s legal professional, McAfee mentioned there was once no strategy to end up Journell’s cats had fed on Uncooked Farm milk. In an electronic mail, he instructed that it was once conceivable the cats “have been fed Monarch dog food which is showed to be making cats in poor health” — a connection with a recall involving the San Jacinto-based dog food corporate.Journell mentioned his cats consume simplest Blue Buffalo-brand rainy and dry kibble.And he famous that his fourth cat — the younger, shy feminine who by no means drank the milk — didn’t change into unwell. 
A barn cat hangs round Mark McAfee’s toes in entrance of his dairy barn. (Tomas Ovalle/For the Instances) McAfee cited the low viral depend discovered within the check samples carried out at Cornell as a reason why to brush aside the findings. The Cornell analysis discovered cycle thresholds, or Ct ranges, upper than 35 within the pattern, which signifies low viral ranges; normally, mavens search for ranges beneath 20 as conclusive proof that the virus is circulating.Then again, Jane Sykes, professor of medication and epidemiology at UC Davis College of Veterinary Medication, reviewed the check effects for The Instances and mentioned whilst viral ranges have been low within the pattern, there was once indubitably about its presence.“They’ve examined a couple of genes, and so they’re all sure. It’s obviously sure, and it’s obviously H5N1 and no longer every other influenza virus in response to the check,” she mentioned.Richard Webby, director of the International Well being Group’s Participating Heart for Research at the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds., who reviewed the checks for The Instances agreed that whilst the numbers confirmed low viral quantities, and that urine isn’t the most productive pattern medium, “I might no longer conclude they’re too low to be significant.”The checks additionally in particular regarded for and located the dairy model of the virus — or B3.13. 
Journell and Large Boy at house on Thursday. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Instances) McAfee additionally mentioned that PCR checks used to spot H5N1 fowl flu in milk or the ones used to check the cat’s urine don’t display whether or not the virus is energetic or useless — it simply displays there are viral fragments of RNA within the pattern. It’s one of the vital problems well being officers are coping with whilst tracking wastewater for the virus: Certain H5N1 samples might be appearing not anything greater than inactivated virus from pasteurized milk, no longer essentially reside virus from every other supply.Sykes agreed with McAfee that the checks don’t display whether or not the virus is alive or useless, however mentioned, “While you’ve were given it within the urine of a cat, you understand the cat’s inflamed.”As well as, she mentioned, the cats’ signs all monitor with what one would be expecting with H5N1 an infection in a tom cat: lethargy, lack of motor regulate, vomiting and seizures. The illness manifests as in large part neurological in cats; necropsies display viral buildup of their brains. And cats all over the place are getting in poor health from the virus.Regardless of a request through public well being officers, Journell determined to not donate the our bodies of his two deceased cats for additional checking out. He mentioned that’s as a result of when he requested the officers what would occur to the our bodies, “they mentioned they’d reduce them up after which throw the items away. I couldn’t do this. I sought after them cremated.”
