A big cat sanctuary in Washington is temporarily closed and quarantined after bird flu killed 20 wild cats there, including cougars, bobcats and a tiger.

Bird flu has been on the rise in Washington state and one sanctuary was hit hard: 20 big cats – more than half of the facility’s population – died over the course of weeks.

Scientists and volunteers with the Olympic Cougar Project said they have the opportunity now to study bird flu in wild animals – to hopefully prevent it from spreading to people.

The Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington lost 20 of its big cats to bird flu, the sanctuary announced. The outbreak took the lives of one Amur/Bengal tiger, four cougars, one African caracal, two Canada lynx,

A California man says his two cats died and a third was hospitalized after he fed them raw milk recalled for bird flu risk

"While this voluntary recall only applies to raw whole milk and cream, due to multiple bird flu detections in the company's operation, the California Department of Public Health [

In a concerning development from California, multiple cat fatalities have been attributed to the consumption of raw milk contaminated with the H5N1 bird flu virus. Joseph Journal, a local resident, suffered the loss of two beloved cats—a 14-year-old tabby and a 4-year-old tuxedo—after they ingested the dairy product,