Please note: Media Relations is unable to answer questions about pet health problems. Contact your veterinarian.  

 

CATS DO NOT REPRESENT SERIOUS HEALTH RISK TO PREGNANT WOMEN

MANHATTAN -- With a little caution, there's no reason for pregnant women to fear contracting toxoplasmosis from their feline friends, according to Kathy Gaughan, a doctor of veterinary medicine at Kansas State University.

Toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that can be contracted from an infected cat's fecal material, causes no lasting adverse effects in most people, Gaughan said. It is often misdiagnosed as mononucleosis, fatigue or a bad cold and the person recovers in one to 12 weeks with no future relapses, she said.

However, severe complications can result if a pregnant woman should become infected with the disease. The parasite moves throughout the body in a way that an infected woman may transfer it to the vulnerable fetus, which cannot fight the disease like a fully developed human.

"The parasite travels through the blood stream and becomes imbedded in muscle tissues," Gaughan said. "When it's in the blood stream, it can cross the placenta and affect the baby. Early in the pregnancy it can cause the baby to be still-born or miscarried. Later in the pregnancy it may damage the central nervous system or cause blindness."

The positive side is that the transfer of the disease to humans can be avoided with some understanding of the disease and a few simple precautions, Gaughan said.

Cats shed the oocysts, or immature organisms in their feces, Gaughan said. It takes at least 24 hours for these oocysts to sporulate, or mature, and become infective. Therefore, one of the primary prevention methods is to clean the litter box daily.

"Within that 24-hour window, the disease is not dangerous to humans," Gaughan said. "So if people are faithful, they can remove the litter at least once every 24 hours and eliminate risk of exposure. Of course, the owner also needs to practice good hygiene after cleaning the litter box."

Another precautionary measure is to keep children's sandboxes covered to prevent cats from soiling in them. Cats can also soil in gardens, so wearing gloves when working in the garden and washing items picked from the garden are other ways to avoid contracting the disease.

In addition, owners should not feed cats undercooked meat or allow the cats to hunt. The cats can only acquire the disease by eating infected meats such as rodents, Gaughan said.

If it is discovered that a cat has become infected, there are antibiotics that can be administered, but it doesn't necessarily kill the infection, Gaughan said. Without any treatment, the cats will usually stop shedding the oocysts after 14 days, she said.

If a pregnant woman should contract the disease, she should seek an expert in infectious diseases. There are antibiotics that can be administered, but the case is very delicate because of the harm that could be done to the fetus, Gaughan said.

"If a woman becomes infected, there's only a 30 to 40 percent chance she will have a damaged fetus," Gaughan said. "So it's not always passed on to the baby."

Gaughan said it is important to note the disease is always dangerous to immunosuppressed persons. In most cases, however, the disease is only dangerous if the person has never contracted toxoplasmosis before. Some figures estimate more than one third of the United States population has been exposed to the disease already.

"It's better to be exposed a long time before you are pregnant," Gaughan said. "A person who has already had the infection is unlikely to get sick again or transmit the disease to a fetus."

Cats are not the only way humans can acquire the disease. People can become infected by the sporulated oocysts in cat feces, but more often, humans can ingest the organism themselves when it's in the tissue stage. It can be found in this intermediate form in the undercooked meat of food animals like hogs and lamb, Gaughan said.

"Most human infections result from eating undercooked meat, not from cats," Gaughan said. "I want to reassure owners that the cat doesn't have to leave the household if they clean the litter box daily, wash really well, avoid feeding cats undercooked meat and so on. Use some common sense and they'll be fine."

-30-

February 1997