JAKARTA, INDONESIA: A cat peers from its cage at a roadside pet stall in Jakarta, 27 October 2005. Indonesia’s human bird flu outbreak is puzzling experts because several victims do not work or live around poultry, prompting an investigation into whether other animal hosts, perhaps cats, are to blame for the disease’s spread. Chaerul Nidom, a bird flu expert from Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, suspects that other animals might be carrying the virus and transmitting it to humans while showing no ill effects from infection themselves, pointing his finger at cats, dogs, hamsters, rats and even mice as possible vectors. The World Health Organization (WHO) says the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu that has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since late 2003 is mostly transmitted to humans through direct contact with infected birds or their droppings. AFP PHOTO/Jewel SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
