Subject: Re: Cats, toxo, meat, and now pigs.
Date: Sep 12 09:35:40 1997
From: Tom Besser - tbesser at vetmed.wsu.edu


WARNING: Thread which was originally peripherally bird-related getting
less so.

Mike Donahue wrote:
> Furthermore, cats can carry the toxoplasma parasite...

True.

Then Allyn Weaks wrote:
> But a much bigger source of infection is from meat.

Also true, especially pork.

The next link in the toxo-meat chain is that the degree of pork
contamination with toxo cysts is primarily affected by the presence or
absence of free-roaming cats on the farm. Cats have the unfortunate
natural tendency to bury their feces in piles of soft stuff- such as
animal feeds. Between toxo and salmonella, which cats also tend to carry
without showing any signs of disease, it's a fair question as to which is
the bigger problem: the cats or the rodents (which the cats are thought to
keep under control, yet another dubious proposition).

Tom Besser
tbesser at vetmed.wsu.edu
Moscow, Idaho