toxo gondii: marine host cycle & transmission

[excerpts, read entire]

National Science Foundation Award Abstract #1065990
EID: Roles of a marine host cycle and particle aggregation in transmission of zoonotic pathogens in coastal ecosystems
October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2013 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date: $2,449,716

Patricia Conrad (Principal Investigator)
John Largier (Co-Principal Investigator)
Christine Johnson (Co-Principal Investigator)
Woutrina Miller (Co-Principal Investigator)

Sponsor: University of Davis, CA

ABSTRACT

[excerpt, read all]

This project will develop a mechanistic understanding of marine transmission of the protozoal parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The team will investigate the role of marine aggregates in the transport of T. gondii and other zoonotic pathogens. An oceanography-based transport model will be coupled to epidemiological data to evaluate if T. gondii infection in sea otters can be predicted by the distribution of aggregate-associated and unattached T. gondii oocysts from terrestrial versus marine sources. The scientists will also investigate whether sea lions are definitive hosts capable of releasing infectious oocysts (current literature indicates that only felines can serve as definitive hosts).


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There are numerous recent journal-published articles about toxoplasmosis; use your favorite "scientific" search, then various keywords to see what current projects and opinions are.

See also:

NIMBioS > Investigative Workshops > Toxoplasma gondii, 2010
NIMBioS > Working Groups > Toxoplasma gondii, 2011 & 2012
[Throughout 2011 I shared these NIMBioS-affiliated feral cat projects with leading cat advocates: Modeling the Feral Cat Population in Knox County, TN, the Rabies Workshop, and the Kitty Cams Research Project conducted by Hernandez and Loyd at the University of Georgia.]

National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis

NIMBioS is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture through NSF Award #EF-0832858, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Previous Feral Cat Blog! posts on toxoplasmosis
[scroll down or use your browser's Edit/Find function with keyword toxoplasmosis]

Nest Defense Behavior Carolina Wrens Urban - Cats

Joint meeting of the Animal Behavior Society & International Ethological Conference
July 2011
Indiana University

Behavior 2011

ABSTRACT

NEST DEFENSE BEHAVIOR BY CAROLINA WRENS (THRYOTHORUS LUDOVICIANUS) IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT.
Ashley Bogrand, Diane Neudorf

Sam Houston State University, United States

We tested the hypothesis tested that Carolina Wrens can discern between different nest predators that they may encounter in an urban environment. The study was conducted in residential yards in the city of Huntsville, Walker County, TX where domestic and feral cats are common. We compared responses of parent birds to mounts of a feral cat (Felis catus), a Texas rat snake (Elaphe obsolete lindheimeri), and a cardboard box (control) placed near the nest during the nestling stage. Wrens emitted a variety of alarm calls towards mounts and spent more time close to nest predators than the control. Rasp alarm calls were given in response to both the cat and snake whereas cheer calls were given only toward the cat. The control received very little response. Preliminary findings indicate that Carolina Wrens in urban environments can distinguish between potential nest predators and may use different alarm calls accordingly.

Int'l Wildlife Manage Conference 2012

International Wildlife Management Conference 2012 > Preliminary Program
July 9-12, 2012
Durban, South Africa

a few presentations and posters of note:

Tues

A. Gramza
An Interdisciplinary Research Approach to Address Issues Involving Domestic Cat-Wildlife Interactions

Wed

J. Belant
Managing Human-Wildlife Conflicts on the 'Hard Edges'

D. Bergman
Predation Management in the United States of America: The Federal Wildlife Services Program

Thur

A. OConnell
Camera traps in wildlife ecology: applications for population estimation, long-term monitoring, and conservation management cont.

D. Bergman
Collaborative advances under the North American Rabies Management Plan

J. Allan
Managing the Message and Measuring the Reaction: Public responses to urban wildlife management in the internet era.

S. Dubois
Killing with kindness: feeding wildlife and its lethal consequences

P13 National Wildlife Research Center Providing Scientific Expertise to Resolve Human-Wildlife Conflicts

P26 Reducing conflict and increasing ecological knowledge of urban carnivores

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2011 AnimalResources shared with leading cat advocates Ashley Gramza's research and presentations at various wildlife and conservation venues on the Ecological Role of Domestic Cats in Urbanizing Landscapes with Crooks, VandeWoude, Teel; and Allan O'Connell's (USGS) work assessing predator effects on Florida Keys Marsh Rabbits and book about remote camera traps.

S DuBois - if this presenter is Sara DuBois, Wildlife Manager of the BCSPCA, I have her 2010 article, "On the Path to Compassionate Conservation" and her 2003 thesis about wildlife rehab (in 2007 I shared info I'd compiled about animal compassion fatigue with an academic and writer.)

David Bergman of USDA Wildlife Services (Phoenix) is familiar to me from articles in my files such as
The Economic Impact of Invasive Species to Wildlife Service Cooperators
from a 2000 symposium. I have previously shared with leading cat advocates all the varying versions of Pimentel about so-called environmental and economic costs of invasives including feral cats.
Related: previous Feral Cat Blog! posts about USDA Wildlife Services

Using Disease Research in Wildlife Conservation: cats and toxoplasmosis

Dr. Rick Gerhold currently has a post-doctoral research position at the Center of Wildlife Health, Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries at the University of Tennessee. Here is a short bio from Dr. Gerhold's May 2012 presentation at the Exotics Symposium. Apparently Dr. Gerhold is interviewing for the Microbial Pathogenesis and Infectious Disease and Public Health faculty positions in VMS at North Dakota State University.

"Using Disease Research in Wildlife Conservation" is a presentation that was given by Dr. Gerhold at the
Spring 2012 Graduate Seminar in Forestry Fisheries Wildlife.

Download slide presentation
Listen to audio presentation
[always read entire documents and listen to entire audio presentations]

Dr. Gerhold discussed the problems of disease prevalence and transmission in captive northern bobwhites or quail, an important game species -- raised for hunting. Their research demonstrated that the propagation of captive quail has significant disease ramifications.

In the latter half of the presentation, Dr. Gerhold talked about their UT research project regarding transmission of toxoplasma gondii in wildlife.

Slides on page 10 of the presentation in the toxo section state:

Future plans -- use preliminary data for an NSF-EEID proposal*

• Focus on areas where there are known feral cat colonies and exotic importations
• Perform targeted surveillance surrounding these areas and those with unique genotypes those with unique genotypes
• Identify the major vertebrates associated with T. gondii transmission
• Create predictive model for introduction and maintenance of novel genotypes

How is this important for conservation?

• Identifies wildlife disease surveillance as a predictor for human pathogens
– Allows us to tap into existing wildlife projects and further demonstrate the usefulness for wildlife research

• Further demonstrates the negative impacts of non-native animal populations
– Exotic animal importation
– Free roaming cats and TNR

* the new NSF EEID proposal might be submitted in December 2012 (
National Science Foundation funding program for Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease. Dr. Gerhold is also participating in another NSF EID four-year project regarding lyme disease.

Some statements Dr. Gerhold made about cats in the presentation:

- does not agree that a main reason people get toxo is from eating raw food (which as I understand would be via tissue cysts rather than oocysts) and stated humans are most often infected via oocysts (from cats) citing this 2011 study by Hill et al.

- interpreted from a study in Tel Aviv that there is some evidence suggesting TNR colonies may serve as a propagating source for toxo due to higher kitten survival in neutered colonies. Here is a link to the study: "Demographic differences between urban feeding groups of neutered and sexually intact free-roaming cats following a trap-neuter-return procedure" - Gunther, Finkler, Terkel, 2011. In May 2011 and Jan 2012 I shared Finkler studies with leading cat advocates.

- said that a goal of the research is to promote sound conservation and to get away from risky practices like TNR that affect conservation species.

- mentioned he worked in Athens [at the University of Georgia] during the feral cat and Trap Neuter Return discussions [he opposed the Athens/Clarke County TNR ordinance in March 2010.] Dr. Gerhold said that people only started listening when he began talking about diseases.

Clearly the existence of millions of feral, stray, and outdoor domestic cats poses a significant health risk for humans, pets, livestock, and wildlife. Wildlife professionals who have difficulty convincing the cat-loving public to control populations of feral cats might have better luck by emphasizing the health consequences of cat-borne diseases. One look at a leg infected with hookworms might be enough to do the trick.

He of course stated the same in the article "Cats as Carriers of Disease" that he contributed to the Special section: The Impact of Free Ranging Cats published by The Wildlife Society in the spring 2011 issue of Wildlife Professional. I shared the TWS "cat package" with leading cat advocates when published online March 12, 2011. It was planned along with other strategies at the September 2010 meeting about feral cats that ABC and TWS held with their networks and government agencies.

Announced May 2, 2012 by The Wildlife Society, Dr. Gerhold has been selected as one of the participants for TWS 2012 Leadership Institute. Dr. Gerhold is in the long list of people thanked by Dauphine and Cooper in "Impacts of Freeranging Domestic Cats on Birds in the United States" presented at the 2008 conference of Partners in Flight.

In November 2011 Dr. Gerhold was listed as a participant in the NIMBioS Rabies workshop which also included several leading feral cat experts. Throughout 2011 I shared these NIMBioS-affiliated cat projects with leading cat advocates: Modeling the Feral Cat Population in Knox County, TN, the Rabies Workshop, and the Kitty Cams Research Project conducted by Hernandez and Loyd at the University of Georgia.

feral cat research Hawaii

37th Annual Albert L. Tester Memorial Symposium
March 14-16, 2012
University of Hawaii Manoa

download pdf: UH Tester Symposium 2012 Program Abstracts

[excerpt]

Alisa A. Davis
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management
(Advisors: Christopher A. Lepczyk, Susan E. Crow, Clifford W. Morden)

Methods for detecting Toxoplasma gondii in Hawai‘i

Feral cats have flourished in urban areas of Hawai‘i due to the state’s favorable climate and people’s positive perception of cats. However, the presence of large numbers of feral cats has raised concern both in terms of predation of native species and as vectors for disease. One disease, in particular, that has aroused a great deal of attention is toxoplasmosis, caused by the coccidian parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Felids are the definitive host of T. gondii and concerns arise regarding transmission to humans due to the relationships people have with domestic cats (Felis catus). Another concern for Hawai‘i is that the parasite has infected endemic and endangered species, sometimes causing death to several critically endangered species. Toxoplasma gondii oocysts are shed by cats in their excrement and can persist in soil between one and four years. The presence of T. gondii at cat colony sites could be an important factor when making decisions for the management of feral cats found in urban areas in the state. Soil samples from cat colony sites at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa will be tested for T. gondii oocysts using a general framework that includes aggregate dispersion, floatation, and molecular identification methods. Though there are no standardized methods for detecting T. gondii in soil, this general framework has been used in several studies throughout the world. This presentation will focus on the specific methods used for this study and how they relate to the physical attributes of urban soils in Hawai‘i and T. gondii oocysts.


University of Hawaii SRS 2012 STUDENT RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
April 13-14 2012
University of Hawai‘i at Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) and College of Engineering (COE) 2012 Student Research Symposium.

download pdf: UHM CTAHR SRS 2012 Program Abstracts


(110) Methods for detecting Toxoplasma gondii in Hawai‘i.

Alisa Davis*, Christopher A. Lepczyk, Susan E. Crow, and Clifford W. Morden. Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Management and Botany.

Stray and outdoor cats (Felis catus) have flourished in Hawai‘i’s urban areas due to the state’s favorable climate and people’s positive perception of cats. However, the presence of large numbers of stray cats has raised concern both in terms of predation of native species and as vectors for zoonotic diseases. One disease, in particular, that has aroused a great deal of attention is toxoplasmosis, caused by the coccidian parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Felids are the definitive host of T. gondii and concerns arise regarding transmission to humans, other pets, and native wildlife. Toxoplasma gondii oocysts are shed via the cat’s excrement and can persist in soil between one and four years. The presence of T. gondii at cat colony sites could be an important factor when making decisions for the management of stray and colony cats found in urban areas in the state. The goal of this study was to detect T. gondii oocysts from soil samples and present management options for cat colonies on the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa campus. This presentation focuses on the specific methods used for this study and how they relate to the physical attributes of urban soils in Hawai‘i and T. gondii oocysts. Soil samples from cat colony sites at the university were tested for T. gondii oocysts using a general framework that includes aggregate dispersion, floatation, and molecular identification methods.


(117) Who wants feral cats in the Hawaiian Islands and why?

Cheryl Lohr* and Christopher Lepczyk. Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management.

Feral house cats (Felis catus) are abundant in the Hawaiian Islands and pose a threat to native wildlife through predation and the spread of disease. A combination of factors including the submission of State bills and County resolutions has created the impression that a large segment of society supports the presence of feral cats in the islands and in-situ management techniques. The goal of this research was to quantify the perceptions and desires of Hawai‘i residents regarding the abundance of feral cats. In 2011 we disseminated a survey to approximately 5000 pre-identified wildlife stakeholders and a random sample of the general public. Approximately 46% of stakeholders and 20% of the general public responded to the survey with over 1500 returned questionnaires in total. Data were analyzed using the potential for conflict index (PCI) and Wildlife Stakeholder Acceptance Capacity (WSAC) models. PCI results reveal a strong consensus that the abundance of feral cats should be decreased. Despite this consensus, 12% of respondents would like to see populations of feral cats persist in the islands. Peoples’ desire to see the abundance of cats reduced was correlated (0.54) with whether or not people enjoyed seeing feral cats (84% of survey respondents dislike seeing feral cats). We also asked survey recipients if feral cats should be removed permanently or relocated away from areas with endangered wildlife: The majority of people (78%) support the idea of permanently removing feral cats, whereas 10% would prefer to see feral cats relocated away from the specified area, and a small proportion of people (3%) believe that feral cats that are being fed do not kill other animals. This research reveals that only a small segment of society supports the presence of feral cats in the islands which is likely to influence public policy regarding feral cats.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the summary above, Lohr and Lepczyk surveyed pre-identified wildlife stakeholders and random general public. In the summary below, Ward Research contracted by HSUS included focus groups and surveys of cat owners and caregivers.

Some of the related info previously shared offline by AnimalResources and on the Feral Cat Blog!:

Hawaii > Ward Research for Hawaiian Humane Society and CGAPS Invasive Species, HSUS too
Thu, Dec 29, 2011

In November the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) posted about their involvement in the Hawaii coalition to address issues of feral freeroaming cats and the findings from the HSUS contract with Ward Research.

HSUS > Wayne's Blog: Finding Common Ground—Outdoor Cats and Wildlife

download pdf: The HSUS and Hawaii Coalition for Protection of Cats and Wildlife

The McDowell/Burns/Lepczyk paper I e-mailed about on September 20, 2011 mentions Ward Research done in 2008 for Hawaiian Humane Society (and there was previous research.)

Ward Research also did research for CGAPS. This informative article outlines CGAPS invasive efforts from 1995 on:

Report to the Legislature on Efficacy of Public Outreach on Invasive Species
Submitted to Gov. Lingle’s Communications Office by request on 8/16/07 by Christy Martin, Public Information Officer, Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit—Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Honolulu, HI.
download pdf: http://www.hawaiiinvasivespecies.org/cgaps/pdfs/cgapsreport20070816publicoutreach.pdf

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Some previous Feral Cat Blog! posts:

Feral Cat Blog! > Lepczyk posts - scroll down or use Edit/Find

Vertebrate Pest Conference March 2012 - Feral Cats - February 10, 2012
includes Cheryl Lohr and Alisa Davis feral cat presentations

Feral Cats in Hawaii - December 2006

USGS Hawaii Fact Sheet - April 2006

FWS Bio Op KLwoodrat-cotton mouse-cats

This is the August 27, 2011 Biological Opinion (BO) by the USFWS to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection regarding a Restoration project to benefit the endangered Key Largo woodrat and Key Largo cotton mouse in Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park in Monroe County Florida. (map - pan out!) The BO repeats and references the questionable info in documents, that I’ve compiled for years and shared with leading cat advocates nationwide, regarding endangered species and feral or free roaming cats in the Florida Keys.

There are numerous related documents for each endangered species and park. Dagny Johnson State Park is located between Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Crocodile Lake NWR issues were later incorporated into the 2011 Florida Keys Refuges Integrated Predator Plan.

The BO summarizes continued efforts over previous years to determine numbers of endangered species populations including live trapping and outlines future trapping after restoration.

Following are excerpts from the 2011 FWS BO regarding cats (always read entire!)

. . . in February 2010. Specifically, 14 captive-bred KLWRs were released into their native habitat at CLNWR. The survival rate of these animals has been low. By July 2010, only one of these animals was known to be alive. Many of; the introduced KLWRs were believed to be killed by feral cats (C. Alligood, personal communication),

On cat threats to the Key Largo Woodrat, followed later by a similar paragraph regarding the Key Largo Cotton Mouse:

The presence of exotic animal species on Key Largo also may represent a threat to the KLWR. Feral and free-roaming domestic cats (Fe/is catus) are known to occur within the CLNWR and the Key Largo Hammocks State Botanical Site. Densities of domestic cats appear to be greater near the residential areas of North Key Largo such as the Ocean Reef, Garden Cove, and the Ocean Shores developments. Cats are known to prey upon a variety of wildlife species, and studies indicate that small mammals often compose a large propor ion of the diet (Churcher and Lawton 1989). As indicated above, cats are implicated in the death of introduced KLWRs. Moreover, domestic cats may hunt even when fed daily by humans (Liberg 1985). In addition to direct mortality, predators may also have indirect effects on prey species. The risk of predation may alter the behavior of prey species resulting in reduced growth rates and reproductive output (Arthur et al. 2004). Consequently, it is likely feral and free-roaming domestic cats are affecting the KLWR population, but in the absence of specific studies their effects are difficult to quantify. The Service is attempting to address the problem of cats on North Key Largo and contracted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services in 2005 to remove the cats from the CLNWR. However, because humans continue to release cats in this area, ongoing efforts to remove cats will be necessary.

and finally,

In accordance with the Interagency Cooperation Regulation (50 CFR 402),
these terms and conditions must be complied with to implement the reasonable and prudent measures:

3a. Control feral and free-ranging domestic cats on the project sites in perpetuity, and educate the public about the harm to the KLWR, KLCM, and other native wildlife species that results when domestic cats are allowed to roam freely or are released into the wild.

FWS, FEMA Flood Insurance & Feral Cats in Florida Keys

This is the new free-roaming cat brochure from FEMA and USFWS, hosted on the FWS Vero Beach Florida website under the section Conservation in the Keys.

[excerpt]
On April 30, 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) finalized a new Biological Opinion (BO) on the impacts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) flood insurance program on imperiled species in the Florida Keys. The Service completed the new BO with the best available science in fulfillment of a Court Order issued on February 26, 2009. The BO outlines an improved strategy for protecting threatened and endangered species and the habitats they need (referred to as Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives [RPAs]).

[excerpt]
The amended BO identifies 11 actions to be implemented by FEMA, the Service, and participating NFIP communities and certified to the Court before the existing injunction will be lifted. The proposed timeline for the actions is 14 months from the date of the Court’s acceptance of the amended BO (January 11, 2011), resulting in a projected certification date on or before March 11, 2012.
Critical time sensitive actions are referenced in RPA 1, RPA 2, and RPA 5.

Two of multiple requirements for Monroe County participating communities in the FEMA Flood Insurance program (Islamorada, Layton, Marathon, and unincorporated Monroe Co ) by March 2012 were to provide written procedures for referring floodplain development permit applicants to the FWS for review etc. and

6. Free-Roaming Cats: FEMA will coordinate with participating communities in Monroe County in their development of a brochure, information on a website, and other materials for addressing predation by domestic and feral cats in areas within endangered and threatened species habitat and buffer zones in the Special Flood Hazard Area. Participating communities will be required to provide this brochure to all floodplain development permit applicants seeking a flood plain permit, to build a structure, or expand an existing structure. This brochure will describe how to protect threatened and endangered species by keeping pets indoors. FEMA will provide a yearly report and a list by parcel of how many floodplain development permits were issued by NFIP participating communities for each of the buffer zones by species affected in the Special Flood Hazard Area.

Five Biological Opinions (click on Monroe County) created by the FWS since 1997 regarding FEMA’s Administration of the Flood Plain Insurance Program in MoCo include information about the need to address feral or freeroaming cat issues! See all including the April 2010 BO for interesting descriptions of how feral cat numbers were estimated.

Similar and same info is in the numerous FWS documents relating to their quest to remove feral or free roaming cats from wildlife refuges and private property in the Florida Keys due to alleged predation but without knowing how many endangered species or cats there are, among other deficiencies. The most recent of those documents was the Florida Keys Refuges Integrated Predator Plan.

In my limited opinion, much needed cat campaigns to promote responsible pet ownership in the U.S. have instead been marred and rendered ineffective by misinformation, the desire of some to continue killing cats for control or management, and by some misinterpretation. This resulted in the inability of cat and TNR advocates to promote even the beneficial parts of such campaigns as ABC’s ongoing Cats Indoors! (scroll down or Edit/Find) and the old HSUS Safe Cats campaign (before they changed to endorse TNR) as well as the recent OurAnimalFamily.org (created in 2008 for FWS and Florida Keys Refuges) and now the new FWS/FEMA free-roaming cat brochure for flood program participating communities in MOCO.

What can break the impasse between cat and Trap Neuter Return advocates and groups or individuals in opposition? Many people care about ALL species, populations and individual animals. While inaccurate information cannot go unchallenged, AnimalResources continues to seek and identify reasonable and open-minded people who want to move beyond controversy, improve and save cat lives, end killing, protect all species.

Recurring takeaways from the Feral Cat Blog!:

Community Cat Management
A prevention AND solution action for cities, counties, communities is to immediately implement or support comprehensive cat management programs that promote CONCURRENTLY:

* spay neuter, identification, and containment as possible or supervision for 'owned' cats and
* Trap-Neuter-RETURN-Manage (TNRM) for unowned cats.
* covered dumpsters and garbage containers

and

Seek nonlethal and nontoxic solutions to all life and earth challenges, large or small!

Domestic carnivores around urban areas in central Spain

Incursion of domestic carnivores around urban areas: a test in central Spain
Fandos, Guillermo 1 / Fernández-López, Javier 1 / Tellería, José Luis 1
1Departamento de Zoología y Antropología Física, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Complutense, Madrid 28040, Spain

Citation Information: mammalia. Volume 0, Issue 0, Pages -–-, ISSN (Online) 1864-1547, ISSN (Print) 0025-1461, DOI: 10.1515/mammalia-2011-0050,

Abstract
Although domestic carnivores are frequently considered a threat to wildlife inside and around urban areas, little is known about the incursions of these animals from urban areas to the surrounding habitats. To explore this, we sampled carnivores in wooded areas surrounding four villages located in the mountains north of Madrid by using 40 camera-trapping stations. They were distributed at regular distances within a perpendicular transect distributed from 10 to 2000 m from the urban border. The results suggest that the incidence of domestic carnivores (cats and dogs) was constrained to <400 m from the urban border, and that the presence of domestic carnivores did not interfere with the distribution of wild carnivores (foxes, beech martens, badgers, genets, etc.), which show random distribution patterns around villages. This means that overpredation at the village edges could mainly be due to the effect of domestic animals and not to that of wild carnivores attracted to urban areas.

Keywords: camera trapping; domestic and wild carnivores; edge effect