An Iowa cat is the first feline in the nation to test positive for H1N1 influenza.

The 13-year-old cat was brought to the Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center at Iowa State University on Oct. 27 because it was suffering from a loss of appetite, lethargy and difficulty breathing when lying on its side, all signs of a lower airway infection that is common in cats with H5N1, also known as the bird flu.

Two people in the household exhibited flu-like symptoms, so Dr. Brett Sponseller, whose doctorate degree is in molecular virology, and the cat's owner, an ISU employee with a scientific background in infectious diseases, decided to test the cat for H1N1.

Preliminary confirmation came Oct. 28 from ISU, and official results were received Monday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"The major finding really is that since it's a single-cat household and it's an indoor cat only, it appears the transmission went from owners, the family members, to cat," said Sponseller, who spent most of Wednesday fielding calls from reporters all over the United States and Europe. "I have not experienced this kind of publicity or draws from the press."

Previously, H1N1, a novel flu strain that surfaced earlier this year, has been known to transfer from humans to pigs, birds and ferrets. There still is no evidence that the virus can be passed from cats to humans or from humans to dogs, said Michael San Filippo, a spokesman for the American Veterinary Medical Association.

"We sort of saw this coming. Obviously, with a new strain of virus, you don't know how likely it might be to cross species," he said. "Typically, most viruses stay within their own species, but we're seeing a bit of drift here."

The cat, which also had a moderate to severe case of pneumonia, was given fluids for minor dehydration and systemic antibiotics due to concerns about secondary bacterial infections, but the pet has recovered, as have its owners, Sponseller said. The names of the owners and their hometown were not released due to federal health privacy laws.

"The cat is doing well. It didn't require Tamiflu (an antiviral medicine) or things that could be considered helpful for humans with influenza," Sponseller said. "It's just the same sort of care that you would give to any member of your family, almost to the point of chicken soup to get them to eat and get fluids."

There is no H1N1 vaccine for cats as there is for humans. San Filippo said the same sanitary precautions that should be used to prevent the spread of the flu between humans should also be applied to cats.

Sponseller and San Filippo both cautioned that since this is the first confirmed case of a feline with influenza, other cats that contract the virus may not exhibit the same symptoms and the seriousness of the effects could vary.

"Because it's a new strain of virus, it behaves differently than things that we've seen before, so we're sort of learning as we go along," San Filippo said. "That's why we don't want people to overreact. It's definitely something that we are monitoring very closely. We're going to find out more as we go along, but it's something that we can test for and doesn't appear to be overly severe or fatal."