What affects us affects cats
There is a perception among some people that stray cats are diseased and can transmit infections to people. I’m reminded of this by a woman in Hong Kong, Icy Song, who runs into stray cats on her way to Lingnan University. She comments as follows: Although I feel pity for the stray cats, I …
NEWS AND OPINION: It is a time to praise the domestic cat for comforting vulnerable people who during extensive coronavirus pandemic lockdowns have been left isolated through no fault of their own. This is a time when the domestic cat has really proved their value to society. Fuchsia Carter Fuchsia, aged 35, lives in …
This is a recently published study on how prevalent the disease called toxoplasmosis is in Korean cats and dogs. It appears to have been carried out because of an outbreak of human toxoplasmosis which has been put down to eating food contaminated with Toxoplasma gondii. This is the most common way a person is …
Are cat and dog owners healthier than others? The conclusion of a 42,000 people survey in California 1 is that ‘there is no evidence of a positive impact of pet ownership per se on the general health [of the participants]’. In other words pets don’t improve your health. Other factors have an impact it …
People ask: are feral cats a health hazard? I can answer the question in two ways. I can take a scientific approach which I do later on in this article but initially I will simply comment generally on the question. I have read thousands of pages on the Internet and in books about cats …
A study published on the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes Of Health website has come to the conclusion that there is a link between Toxoplasma gondii and prostate cancer. More particularly, the study identifies that the parasite is a trigger of prostatic inflammation. They say that inflammation is the most prevalent and …
Mapping all 20,000 genes of the domestic cat is intended to allow scientists to (a) improve human health (b) improve cat health and (c) better understand the origins of the domestic cat (and how it spread across the world) and provided cat breeds are included in studies, the evolution of the cat breeds. Until …
The U.S., multistate outbreak of human salmonella infections caused by dry dog food in 2006 to 2007 is a reminder that the basic principles of food safety also apply to handling pet food. This is something that I suspect does not occur to most people especially with respect to dry food which, it seems, …
