Treating illnesses with cats is very important for each cat’s health and to limit any contagious diseases. However, we need to not demonise cats for the diseases.
The LRC team provides references and quotes from trusted organisations and experts.
[This page is “under construction” and more information on separate topics will be added soon.]
Toxoplasmosis (toxo) Gondii
“On the whole, there was little evidence that T. gondii was related to increased risk of psychiatric disorder, poor impulse control, personality aberrations or neurocognitive impairment.” https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0148435
While toxo is a major concern for people with immune deficiencies, it appears people with strong immunity are much less likely to be infected.
The research “2019 The One Health Approach to Toxoplasmosis: Epidemiology, Control, and Prevention Strategies”, includes some relevant factors and recommendations, including
- Undetected transmissions are of concern and more rigorous testing should be instigated
- People and animals are more likely to be infected from raw or undercooked meat, contaminated water, soil or vegetables etc and addressed with basic hygiene and cooking/ preparation of meals
- A vaccine for cats has been developed
- Integration of human health, animal health and ecosystems is required to generate new approaches and manage this disease.
“Recent studies have demonstrated that undetected environmental oocyst transmission is the major route of T. gondii transmission presenting a direct public and animal health problem (Tenter et al. 2000, Dabritz and Conrad 2010, Boyer et al. 2011, Hill et al. 2005, 2011, Torrey and Yolken 2013; VanWormer et al. 2016). The risk factors for human and animal infection include consuming infected raw or undercooked meat; ingestion of contaminated water, soil, vegetables, or anything contaminated with oocysts shed in feces; blood transfusion or organ transplants; intrauterine or transplacental transmission; and drinking infected unpasteurized milk. The majority (78%) of congenital toxoplasmosis cases from four epidemics in North America originated from oocyst exposure, though only 49% of these cases could be confirmed as foodborne. Two public health studies in Chile evaluated oocyst-acquired infections in pregnant women and in swine, which are a primary food source; T. gondii oocyst-specific IgG antibodies were determined in 193/490 (43%) of serum samples from pregnant women and in 24/30 (80%) of 30/340 (8.8%) the swine (Muñoz-Zanzi et al. 2010, 2012). Oocysts can also contaminate drinking water sources, both small-scale wells (Sroka et al. 2006) and larger reservoirs (Bowie et al. 1997), and can contaminate surfaces, such as dog fur (Frenkel et al. 2003) or keypads (Bik et al. 2016).”
“Future research should also focus on vaccine development. A vaccine is available for sheep in some countries, but no vaccine exists for other livestock, humans, or wildlife. A vaccine for domestic cats was produced, but its implementation has been limited by high costs of production, short shelf life, and lack of interest from domestic cat owners (Dubey 2010).”
“The increasing demand for food safety together with the potential economic impact of legislation aimed at risk reduction has brought attention to the need for the development and standardization of diagnostic tests for Toxoplasma infection. Such tests will need to provide an accurate estimate of risks of transmission of toxoplasmosis to humans and must perform with comparable specificity and sensitivity across a range of animal species. Despite the lack of widespread, effective screening processes are in place for consumer meats, with new standardized tests which may be useful for disease monitoring and control (Nunes Mecca et al. 2011).”
“One Health has emphasized the need to bridge disciplines linking human health, animal health, and ecosystem health. Toxoplasmosis demands integrative approaches breaching disciplinary boundaries. This integration is needed to generate new approaches to manage and control the disease. The complexity of toxoplasmosis requires the development of a dashboard system of measures that are a combination of health and ecological indicators, that is, an easy set of indicators for quick reference to identify prevention and management needs.
Transdisciplinarity, integrative research, and capacity building are core elements in establishing One Health interventions that address toxoplasmosis.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6682582/
It is strongly recommended that free cat vaccinations for toxo are assessed for offering as a proven way of reducing this disease considering the quoted figures for impacts to businesses.
LRC 