Stem disease: Stop feeding stray cats

CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Oct 18, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine scientists are urging people to help stem disease by keeping pet cats inside and stop feeding strays.

Milton McALlister, a professor of pathobiology, said those steps, along with sufficiently cooking meat, are ways to help halt the spread of the zoonotic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite.

"Our profession needs to come to grip with the accumulating body of evidence about the tremendous burden wrought on society by toxoplasmosis," McAllister wrote. "Further research is needed to clarify the association between toxoplasmosis and mental health, but until such time that this association may be refuted, it is my opinion ... current evidence is strong enough to warrant an assumption of validity."

Toxoplasma can infect most warm-blooded animals, as well as humans and birds, but cats are the only animals that can transmit the parasite by shedding the organism in feces.

McAllister was to present his study Wednesday in Christchurch, New Zealand, during the 20th International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology. The study also appeared in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal Veterinary Parasitology.

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