How dangerous is toxoplasmosis from cats for humans and pregnancy?

Toxoplasmosis can be diagnosed by blood work or a fecal examination. However toxoplasma takes 24 hours after a bowel movement to become infectious. So if your sister cleans the box daily, and showers daily, and wears clean clothes daily then the likelihood of contamination approaches zero. I am a veterinarian, and touch cats daily, and had my antibodies tested before pregnancy and I have never been exposed. I hope this helps explain this for you. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

It is a bit complicated as positive toxoplasmosis titer does not mean that your cat has toxoplasmosis. It means that she was in contact with the virus at some point during her life and that she developed some immunity. Repeating the blood test and confirming rise in toxoplasma titer is consistent with ongoing toxoplasma infection. However, if Susan does have toxoplasmosis (which is not that common disease in cats) your wife should not be in contact with her during pregancy. Please, note that the source of infection for us are cats' stools, particicularily not the fresh ones but a few days old or older. I would suggest your wife to discuss this situation with her GP or obstetrician and see what they would recommend.

There really is very little risk having a cat around during a normal, healthy pregnancy. Just wash your hands after petting her, & if you can have anyone else clean the litter box, this would be a reasonable precaution. Otherwise, good, common sense is all that is needed. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

In my opinion, with the proper precautions it can be perfectly safe. The most common time for the baby to be at risk for transmission is during the women's final trimester, so right now would be your home stretch. However, all information that I have ever learned indicates toxoplasmosis is passed only through the feces (maybe the urine too, I'd have to check on that!) and has nothing to do with the hair, saliva, or blood. Keeping that in mind, the only way you are likely to get in contact with the microorganism is by coming in contact with the cat's poop. Best ways to avoid this are the following: -If you must handle cat litter. always wear protective gear around your face and hands. -Always wash your face and hands after handling soiled litter. -Always wash your face and hands after any extensive handling of your kitty. -Avoid sleeping in the same bed as your kitty. -Don't let your cat rub his butt on you! Hope this helps. Don't get rid of your cat. While the risk is there, I think it is blown completely out of proportion. Then again, I am a male veterinarian. Perhaps a female might answer your differently. I am just giving you the facts. Let me know if you have any other questions.

This has been a topic of study recently in human medicine, you can read some articles at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2526142/ though the significance is not truly known yet, and this would be a question more suited to a human physician as they are trained in human medicine. I can tell you, however, that cats are not the only source of toxoplasma and individuals are much more likely to become infected from eating undercooked meat or contracting spores from gardening/vegetables in contaminated soil than from their cats themselves https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/epi.html . If this is something you are concerned about you can clean your cat litterbox daily as the parasite requires 24 or more hours to sporulate and become infective, so if you scoop your litterbox daily and wash your hands well your risk from your cats is incredibly small.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Do not allow yourself or your daughter to handle Minnie's stool. That is the only way you both could contract worms. You would have to get the cats stool in your mouth. The kitten and a stool sample need to go to the Vet this week. They can deworm her, start her kitten vaccines and provide you with a schedule on when to come back. Also since you are pregnant you shouldn't be handling cat stool due to toxoplasmosis risks. Good luck

Not all cats carry toxoplasma and of those that do, they do not shed it everyday. The toxo eggs are not immediately infective in fresh faeces but take a day or so to mature and develop before they are spread to people if eaten. Brief contact with faeces which is washed off immediately is not a major concern as the mature eggs would need to be ingested in order to contract it