Serologic Detection of <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i>in Cat Owners Residing at Dhaka Metropolitan Area of Bangladesh

Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic protozoan that can infect any warm-blooded mammal. T. gondii infects about one-third of the human population on the planet. Infection with the parasite in human causes toxoplasmosis that may pose a high risk in immunocompromised individuals under certain clinical conditions. Cats are the ultimate hosts of T. gondii where oocysts are formed through mating of male and female gametes. Infected cats can expel T. gondii oocysts in their feces, and thereby capable of pass on a disease to humans and other animals through consumption of foods, vegetables and water that are polluted with cat feces. The study was conducted to detect the presence of anti-T. gondii IgM and IgG antibodies in the blood of individuals with or without cat contact to determine if there is any relationship between cat contacts and T. gondii infection in humans. To address this, we enrolled subjects who contacted with the cat as target group and individuals with no cat contact as control group. Following register of different demographic data (including age, sex, education, foods habit, income status, etc.), whole blood from each enrolled subject of both the target group and control group was collected for serum preparation. T. gondii infected subjects were detected by Toxo Rapid test kit through identifying anti-T. gondii IgM and IgG antibodies in their serum. We found that only three out of twenty subjects who were in contact with cat showed positive IgG response while IgM antibody response was absent for all subjects. When compared with the data from control group, we did not find any significant association (p = 0.33) of cat contact with the transmission of T. gondii into human. However, with this small number of study subjects, we cannot conclusively say that there is no impact of cat contact on the transmission of T. gondii into human. Whether any association exists or not can be ascertained with a large number of subjects from different areas of Bangladesh in a future study in the population.

Goodbye to a Good Friend: An Exploration of the Re-Homing of Cats and Dogs in the U.S.

When dogs and cats are not retained in a home, they are re-homed to somewhere, and while there is a collection of research around relinquishment to shelters, little is known about the general re-homing picture. A cross sectional random digit dial survey was conducted with an aim to learn more about who is re-homing, where they are re-homing and why they are re-homing owned dogs and cats in the US. We found the prevalence of re-homing in five years at 6% making for an estimated 6.12 million household re-homing pets every five years. Pets were most likely to be re-homed by being given to a friend or family member (37%) closely followed by being taken to a shelter. Those who re-homed due to a reason related to the pet as opposed to reasons such as family issues were more likely to re-home to a shelter. For respondents who rented, housing reasons were the number one reason for re-homing, and for respondents of lower income, they were significantly more likely to re-home due to cost and housing issues as opposed to pet related issues. We conclude that some reasons for re-homing are not easily modified and humane re-homing is the best option, but that there are many areas in which intervention and prevention programs may increase retention.