PARIS (AP)--France's food safety agency ordered residents in areas affected by bird flu to keep their cats indoors and dogs on leashes to avoid spreading the virus - but said there was no reason to abandon pets in panic.
France's government had asked the food safety agency, AFSSA, for a study on the risks of cats getting bird flu even before a cat in Germany was found to have died of the flu earlier in the week - the first report of an infected mammal in continental Europe.
France has recorded 29 cases of H5N1 in wild birds and an outbreak at a turkey farm - the only case of commercial poultry infected in the European Union. All of France's cases have been confined to the southeastern Ain region.
The food safety agency ordered residents in the Dombes district of the Ain region to keep their cats indoors and dogs on leashes when outdoors. It said veterinary authorities should investigate any unusual cat deaths in the infected zones, and urged people not to touch dead animals, animal droppings or any detritus likely to attract carnivorous animals.
Some French cat owners panicked after the German announcement and bombarded the animal protection society with anxious calls. In some cases, owners abandoned their pets.
The food safety agency urged calm. "These precautionary measures, which are temporary, should in no case lead to abandoning pets," it said in a statement released by the Agriculture Ministry on Saturday.