Statement. Ladies and Gentlemen, tomorrow’s Gazeta Wyborcza @gazeta_wyborcza is to publish a text which is partly based on our work. Since the text contains an over-interpretation of the results of our research, which distorts the sense of the results and can lead to panic and losses, both economic and image, today we decided to make our position public and present the actual interpretation of the data. Yours faithfully, Krzysztof Pyrć, Maciej Grzybek, Lukasz Rąbalski @GrzybekMaciej @rabalski

Possible transmission paths of the H5N1 virus. With regard to the transmission of influenza A H5N1 virus from birds to domestic cats, an assessment of the situation has shown that food is one of the likely routes of transmission of the pathogen. This is indicated by : ( a) the sudden appearance of the virus in indoor and outdoor cats in different parts of the country; (b) no outbreaks of infection with cat-to-cat transmission; © analysis of the genome sequence of the virus taken from the cat showed no drastic changes compared to the reference sequences, suggesting the emergence of a new strain of influenza virus effectively infecting cats; (d) the sequence similarity of viruses that have been isolated from cats in different parts of Poland is very high, which suggests a single source of infection; (e) discussions with cat owners have suggested raw meat may be the source. To test this theory initially, we asked the owners of sick cats to submit samples of the meat they ate. As a result, we received five meat samples for testing and conducted molecular tests for the presence of the virus. The analysis showed that one of the 5 samples contained the virus. Further analysis showed that the meat contains not only the genetic material of the virus, but also the infectious virus – we were able to isolate the virus in cell cultures. Although it cannot be ruled out that the virus found its way into the meat samples later, or even the meat was contaminated by the owners with the virus developing in the cat’s body, it is also possible that the raw meat was the source of infection. It would not be surprising, because already in 2007, a case of contamination of frozen duck meat with the H5N1 virus was reported [1], which caused outbreaks of the disease in Germany. In view of the above, it seems reasonable to appeal to the veterinary services and sanitary inspection to examine the meat available in Poland and consider including meat testing for H5N1 influenza. This is crucial not only because of cats, but also because this virus is a threat to human life. In addition, the Polish poultry industry accounts for almost 20% of the EU market, and the estimated value of meat exports is over EUR 3 billion. It is worth imagining the consequences for this sector of the economy, if it actually turned out that contaminated meat ended up in France, Italy or Germany.

The research is conducted by three teams led by prof. dr hab. Krzysztof Pyrć, dr hab. Maciej Grzybek and Dr. Łukasz Rąbalski.

[1] Harder TC, Teuffert J, Starick E, et al. Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus (H5N1) in Frozen Duck Carcasses, Germany, 2007. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2009;15 (2):272-279. doi:10.3201/eid1502.080949.