A Portland company’s pet food has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza after an indoor cat that ate the product died, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

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.

Safety tips

Consuming raw or undercooked meat products or feeding such products to pets can lead to severe illness.

Raw meat may contain harmful pathogens, including salmonella, listeria, E. coli and bird flu.

These pathogens are destroyed when meat is thoroughly cooked.

Raw milk, which has not been pasteurized, can also carry harmful germs.

Bird flu updates

Oregon has one confirmed human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza, and the individual was linked to a commercial poultry operation.

Overall, there have been 65 human cases of bird flu in the U.S. as of Dec. 24, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Oregon has two recent instances of backyard flocks infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza. Both were reported Dec. 19, according to the CDC.

One was in Deschutes County and affected 90 birds. The other was in Coos County, where 40 birds were euthanized.

As of Dec. 24, Oregon had no confirmed cases of the virus in dairy cows or cow milk.

As a precautionary measure, the state announced Dec. 11 that it will test milk from every commercial dairy in the state.

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