20 big cats die from bird flu at Washington sanctuary

NEW YORK, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Twenty big cats, including a half-Bengal tiger and four cougars, died between late November and mid-December at a sanctuary in the U.S. state of Washington after becoming infected with bird flu, according to the facility's director.

"We've never had anything like it; they usually die basically of old age," said Mark Mathews, the founder and director of the Wild Felid Advocacy Center in Shelton, Washington. "Not something like this, it's a pretty wicked virus."