Avian influenza outbreaks in domestic cats: another reason to consider slaughter-free cell-cultured poultry?

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Avian influenza causes substantial economic loss in the poultry industry and potentially threatens human health. Over recent years, the highly pathogenic avian influenza A/H5N1 virus has led to devastating losses in poultry flocks and wild birds. At the same time, the number of mammalian species identified to be infected with A/H5N1 is increasing, with recent outbreaks in domestic cats, including household individuals, evidenced in July 2023 in Poland, ultimately creating opportunities for the virus to adapt better to mammalian hosts, including humans. Overall, between 2003 and 2023, over 10 outbreaks in felids have been documented globally, and in six of them, feed based on raw chicken was suspected as a potential source of A/H5N1, fuelling a debate on threats posed by A/H5N1 and methods to decrease the associated risks. This article debates that technology allowing the production of slaughter-free meat, including poultry, from cell and tissue cultures could be considered as a part of a mitigation strategy to decrease the overall burden and threat of adaptation of avian influenza viruses to human hosts. By shifting poultry production to the cultured meat industry, the frequency of A/H5N1 outbreaks in farmed birds may be decreased, leading to a reduced risk of virus acquisition by wild and domesticated mammals that have direct contact with birds or eat raw poultry and have clos

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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