The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) continues to report widespread detections of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 across multiple animal species and states. As of mid-2025, the total number of domestic cats infected with H5N1 has reached 140, with the latest case identified in Contra Costa, California from a sample collected in December 2024. Other mammals recently confirmed with H5N1 include a desert cottontail rabbit in Maricopa County, Arizona, a red fox in Costilla County, Colorado, a rat and a squirrel in Maricopa, Arizona, and a muskrat and red fox in New York. Wild bird infections remain prevalent, with reports of infected species such as Canadian geese, snow geese, swans, hawks, owls, vultures, eagles, pigeons, and ducks across states including Arizona, Maryland, Wyoming, New York, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, California, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.
The USDA has reported a total of five H5N1-infected dairy cattle herds in Arizona, including the first new infected herd in weeks, marking the state's fifth and the country's 1,074th herd. In response, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has extended the H5N1 Influenza A dairy cow testing program through September 30, 2025. Internationally, highly pathogenic H5N1 has been confirmed in commercial poultry premises in North Yorkshire and Wrexham, Wales, United Kingdom, and a clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 virus was detected in a sheep in Great Britain in 2025. The USDA emphasizes the ongoing nature of this global H5N1 animal epidemic and highlights the importance of monitoring predator-prey dynamics, given infections in prey species such as rats and squirrels that serve as food sources for predators like domestic cats, hawks, and eagles.
