Toxoplasmosis - Myths about cats

The care of a mother to be for her unborn baby is extremely natural. The pregnancy period is wonderful and the whole family is preparing for the child to come. At this stage, the pregnant woman is overwhelmed by hundreds of warnings and advice: how to prepare, what brand of diapers is more suitable and especially what to do about her pets. Sometimes the future mother is told to get rid of all the animals, on the base of some horrific scenarios: "You will both get sick, you and the child!", "the cat will kill the baby in his sleep!", and so on. This type of advice is usually generated by ignorance and misconceptions.

The most frequently mentioned "threat" is that of Toxoplasmosis. Most people associate this disease with only one species - cats, but the true major risk of contacting this illness resides in eating infested meat or poorly washed vegetables.

Toxoplasmosis is an infection due to the parasite Toxoplasma Gondii which affects the human, birds and mammals. The definitive hosts for Toxoplasma are, indeed, the cats, but this parasite can be found in over 200 species of birds and mammals. Among the important species are cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and horses. This means that eating meat that came from an infected animal can result in developing Toxoplasmosis in humans.

A European study conducted a few years ago showed that, out of 1110 pregnant women, 10-55% were infected. In UK and Norway the percentage was 10%, while the highest was in France and Greece. Out of all the  confirmed Toxoplasmosis case, up to 63% were attributed to consuming infected meat.

Cats usually get infected by hunting and eating prey, such as small rodents carrying the parasite. This is why cats that live indoors present only a very small risk of ever becoming infected.

Cats carrying the parasite eliminate oocysts in their feces, between day 7 and day 21 after becoming infected. Cat poop can also contaminate the soil, where the parasite can live up to a year, given appropriate temperature and moisture conditions.

Safety measures

·         Make sure your cat is healthy. Don't skip regular deworming or medical checkup. Infection can be diagnosed in a veterinary practice in just a couple of minutes, using rapid test kits for this disease;

·          Wear rubber gloves whenever you clean your cat's litter box. Washing your hands is also mandatory;

·         Don't feed your cat any type of raw or under cooked meat;

·         Also use rubber gloves whenever you are gardening or during activities that require direct contact with soil.

As a personal note, I would like to add that I have seen numerous cases of women that gave birth to wonderful, healthy babies, women who had a cat in the house throughout their pregnancy period. Unfortunately, I have also known of families that simply abandoned the cat, which was sometimes aged 8 or even 12 years, the minute they found out they were expecting a baby.

The pregnancy of a woman is not, by any means, incompatible with the presence of a cat in the household. All it takes is information, a veterinarian medical checkup for the cat and minimum hygienic measures, like washing hands and wearing gloves for litter cleaning.