Bird flu kills German cat

(seems like a little kitty karma at work here)

A cat found dead last weekend on the German island of Rügen was infected with a dangerous strain of bird flu, health officials have confirmed. Tests are being carried out to determine whether the virus is exactly the same as the aggressive H5N1 variant that has so far infected 174 people, mostly in Asia, more than half of whom have died. The danger to humans is "theoretical, but nothing can be excluded", says Thomas Mettenleiter, head of the Friedrich Loeffler Federal Research Institute for Animal Health on the neighbouring island of Riems, off Germany's northern coast.