Two domestic cats in Thailand died of the same bird flu that has killed 22 people in Asia to increase fears that the virus can move between species as easily as it has between countries.
Prime Minister Mr Thaksin Shinawatra urged pet lovers in Thailand, fabled birthplace of the prized, champagne-coloured Siamese cat, to stay calm but said they should think twice before feeding stray or domestic animals with potentially infected meat.
With the human death toll from the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus standing at 22 in Vietnam and Thailand, attention has switched to the number of different species it is able to infect.
At present, H5N1 appears to spread easily only among birds, but health experts fear it might mate with another animal or human flu virus to produce a highly contagious and deadly variant that could unleash a global human flu pandemic.
The two dead cats, which were among three of 15 cats tested from a house near an infected chicken farm in Nakorn Pathom, west of Bangkok, are the first cases of the virus to be found in domestic animals.