Haydee Dabritz and others, University of California, Davis

Toxoplasma gondii is a ubiquitous

protozoan parasite that infects 30-40% of the world's human population. One of the main routes of human infection is contact with contaminated cat faeces.

The authors assess the analytical sensitivity of methods for detecting Toxoplasma oocysts and the environmental load resulting from shedding by owned and feral cats.

Faecal samples were taken from 326 cats in the Morro Bay region of California. On the basis of the estimated tonnage of cat faeces deposited outdoors in this area, they estimate the annual burden in the environment to be between 94 and 4,671 oocysts per m2.

Despite the low prevalence and short duration of oocyst shedding by cats in this and other surveys, they state that the sheer numbers of oocysts shed by cats during initial infection could lead to substantial environmental contamination.

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 231 (11): 1,676-1,684.

Abstract reproduced by kind permission of Veterinary Practice magazine