Morasch Meats Northwest Naturals has voluntarily recalled its two pound feline turkey recipe raw and frozen pet food, the agency announced on Dec. 24.
Testing conducted by the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories and the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Oregon State University confirmed a genetic match between the virus in the pet food and the infected cat, which was from Washington County.
“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food,” said the state veterinarian, Dr. Ryan Scholz.
“This cat was strictly an indoor cat; it was not exposed to the virus in its environment and results from the genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and infected cat were exact matches to each other,” he said in a news release.
Pet food details
The recalled product is packaged in plastic bags with "best by" dates of May 21, 2026 and June 23, 2026.
The pet food was sold nationwide through distributors in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington, as well as British Columbia, Canada.
Pet owners should check their supplies and dispose of the product.
Human monitoring
The Oregon Health Authority and local public health officials are monitoring household members who had contact with the cat for flu symptoms.
To date, no human cases have been linked to the incident.
