I am putting this to rest once and for all. If you are pregnant, keep your cat. Have your partner or yourself clean the poo pan daily. That's all.

FACT #1: Toxoplasmosis is more likely to be caught by outdoor cats, and if you have had your cat for a long time you're probably immune.

FACT #2: You can only catch it (assuming you're already not immune) through eating cat poo.

FACT #3: Toxoplasmosis can only be incubated in a cat's poo over 3 days so if you clean the poo pan daily, the bug won't hatch.

FACT #4: You'd sooner catch Toxoplasmosis through eating raw or uncooked food than from your cat's poo.

Facts on Cats and Pregnancy
(Source: persiancats.org)

"Doctors used to say the woman should get rid of the cat, but that's totally unnecessary," says Dr. Michael Davidson, associate professor of companion animal and special species medicine at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. The only way a woman can get toxoplasmosis from a cat is through direct contact with its feces, which most people try to avoid anyway! A few simple precautions are all that's needed to prevent exposure to this parasite during pregnancy.

Some 80 percent of domestic cats are exposed to toxoplasmosis during their lives, usually as a result of eating a mouse, mole, squirrel or other infected prey. Some cats show no symptoms; others get diarrhea or become listless. Occasionally, pneumonia or eye inflammation occurs. Indoor cats in rodent-free homes may never be exposed.

As many as 60 percent of humans also become exposed, usually after handling cat feces either in a litter box or garden, says Dr. Davidson. Chances are, most cat owners who have lived with felines for any length of time have already been exposed to toxoplasmosis. Like cats, people generally show no symptoms or appear to have only a mild "flu." Although a person shows no symptoms, he or she still produces an antibody, thus building up immunity.

"If you have been exposed to toxoplasmosis and produced an antibody, you're pretty well protected," says Dr. John Botti, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Penn State University College of Medicine. If a woman is exposed to the parasite for the first time during pregnancy, though, the effects that it will have on her and the baby depend on how far along she is in the pregnancy. During the first three months, it is unlikely that a woman will pass the parasite on to her developing fetus. If toxoplasmosis is transmitted to the baby during this time, however, the chances are greatest that the baby will develop a major health problem. Conversely, a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy is most likely to pass on toxoplasmosis to her baby, but the parasite is least likely to cause serious birth defects.

To eliminate the risk of exposure to toxoplasmosis, pregnant cat owners should avoid handling the litter box by having someone else perform the task, or simply wear gloves when cleaning it, and washing hands thoroughly afterwards. This also applies to gardening, especially if outdoor cats frequent the area. "Just use common sense," Dr. Davidson advises. As an added precaution, he recommends that the litter box be changed daily because, once the organism is shed, it takes at least 24 hours for it to become transmissible to humans. Interestingly, cats can only shed the organism in their feces one time during their lives - just after they have been exposed for the first time. And, Dr. Davidson says, "It's unlikely they'll shed it during a woman's pregnancy."

A simple blood test can determine if a person has ever been exposed to toxoplasmosis. Unfortunately, it cannot specify when exposure occurred, so it's a good idea for a woman to be tested before becoming pregnant. If she has been exposed she will know for sure it was prior to her pregnancy.

Toxoplasmosis should be taken seriously, but it's no reason for pregnant women to get rid or even avoid their cats. During pregnancy, a woman has days when she feels apprehensive about the future or stressed about her weight gain or fearful of the impending delivery. The perfect remedy - and one that is completely safe - may be to curl up on the sofa with a feline friend.

How to catch Toxoplasmosis
(Source: Toxoplasmosis (and how to catch it))

The toxoplasmosis scare with regard to cats has limited foundation. Even if you do change cat litter, it would be extremely hard for you to catch toxoplasmosis from it - not impossible, but hard. You are much more likely to catch toxoplasmosis from eating rare or lightly cooked meat, and poor food hygiene generally.

Toxoplasmosis is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. It is only a danger to the unborn child if the mother contracts it during pregnancy for the first time. The infection can only cross the placenta in the acute phase of the illness, i.e. in the mother's first attack. After this the mother is usually immune, but even if she does have another dose, it will not harm the baby.

So assuming you are not immune to toxoplasmosis, how do you go about catching it? Here's what you'd have to do with cats:

First, find a cat which is allowed outdoors and which hunts - as they usually catch toxoplasmosis from eating rodent prey. Housebound cats will not be able to catch it. In cats generally, about 20-60% have been infected [1]. The prevalence is highest in feral cats although domestic cats can catch it too. However, very few of these cats will actually be infectious themselves, as usually they will only transmit the disease during their primary infection. After the cat is first infected, it will shed oocysts (eggs) in its faeces for 10-14 days. It will not normally shed them after this period, and only around 1% of infected cats have been found to be infectious in surveys [1]. However, the oocysts can survive for a year or more, so old cat faeces are potentially dangerous - e.g. ones that have been mouldering in your garden and which you stumble upon while weeding the borders.

So, having found your cat during its rare infectious period, you then have to actually ingest some of these oocysts to get infected. We are not talking about changing cat litter with basic hygiene precautions here. You actually have to ingest cat faeces somehow. If you are washing your hands after changing cat litter then this will be very unlikely. However, wearing gloves while gardening, and not touching your face or mouth while gardening, is probably a sensible precaution.

Just looking at the numbers here, if around 1% (and this is probably a high estimate) of cats are shedding oocysts at any particular time, and around 30% of women are immune anyway, then only around 0.6% of women who come into contact with one cat are at even a *theoretical* risk of catching toxoplasmosis from their cat while pregnant. And this would be assuming that they actually went out of their way to try to catch it, i.e. deliberately ate cat faeces! Bringing in basic hygiene precautions will mean that the proportion of that 0.6% of women who stand any realistic chance of being infected is miniscule.

Without being complacent about toxoplasmosis as it is a dreadful disease for a baby to catch in utero, it appears ridiculous that many pregnant women are paranoid about going near cats, when they should be concentrating their attentions on food hygiene and caution while gardening.

If you do catch toxoplasmosis in pregnancy, estimates of the likely percentage of babies affected vary, as do estimates of the likely severity of the illness. For example: "there is approximately a 40% chance that the foetus will acquire the infection, and in around 10% of these cases, severe neurological or ocular disease is present at birth" [1] or "The transmission rate from a maternal infection is about 45%. Of these 60% are sub-clinical infections, 9% result in death of the foetus and 30% have severe damage such as hydrocephalus, intracerebral calcification, retinochoroiditis and mental retardation." [3]

Other links:

Handling cats during pregnancy: is it a concern?
Raining cats and dogs – pets, pregnancy and your baby
Toxoplasmosis, Human Pregnancy, Infants and Cats
Cats and Pregnancy
Google search for Cats + Pregnancy
Google search for How to catch Toxoplasmosis

Tags: Toxoplasmosis, pregnancy and cats