I can't find any online article with the cat deaths. What happened is the researchers were trying to find why the cows were sick. One noticed the farm cats weren't coming up to him like they had before. He found out they were dying. That lead to looking for bird flu.
This was published in the Apr 26, 2024 issues of the Ames Tribune. They likely listened into a recent talk given by the researchers at the local ARS Diagnostic Lab. #BirdFlu#AvianFlu