Vegan

On December 24, 2024, ODA announced that Morasch Meat’s Northwest Naturals brand 2 lb. Turkey Recipe raw & frozen pet food tested positive for a H5N1 strain of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus. Testing conducted by the USDA NVSL and the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (ODVL) at Oregon State University confirmed a house cat in Washington County contracted H5N1 and died after consuming the raw frozen pet food. Tests confirmed a genetic match between the virus in the raw and frozen pet food and the infected cat.  

“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food,” said ODA 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.”