The Cornell website is wrong, period. Lots of "experts" take the easy way out, and take an unnecessarily conservative approach to anything that could cause controversy. FELV is NO danger what so ever to humans, or unborn humans, period. Toxoplasmosis is dangerous to unborn humans, BUT it is not only easily avoided IF your cat has it (by simply wearing gloves when handling poop), but it's also EASY to TEST your cat for it to begin with, something no one else considered or mentioned.
Take Tom to a good vet, have them test him for Toxoplasmosis (all the other cats in your household too). If he's negative, keep him indoors (and all the other cats too), don't feed him any raw meat (don't feed yourself any raw or undercooked meats EITHER! NO rare steaks for pregnant women!) and it is perfectly safe for you to PLAY in his poopies if you so desire (assuming he's also negative for any intestinal worms, might as well have the vet check that too while you're there, OK?). Cat poop is not dangerous to humans or unborn humans in itself. If you cat is parasite free, and tests negative for Toxoplasmosis, then there is no reason why you can't do everything you normally do while pregnant, regardless of what your overbearing mother-in-law tells you. Now on to the topic of what can be passed from animals to humans.. a few I'd like to pint out, since everyone else missed a few of them. Not all of these effect cats, but they do effect humans as well as other animals of one type or another (zoonotic). ;-) Anthrax Mad Cow Disease (Spongiform Encephalopathy) Ringworm (actually a fungus) Common Intestinal Worms (many different types) Rabies Trichinosis Cutaneous Larval Migrans (these are the little worms that crawl around under your skin, and even through your eyes) Salmonella Shigellosis (commonly known as "the shingles") Leprosy (only known of in humans and armadillos, weird, eh?) Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountian Spotted Fever and Borreliosis (all tick-borne diseases) Typhoid Fever Hantavirus Equine Encephalitis (horses, humans, emu, ostriches, and pigs) West Nile Disease and last, but not least: The FLU Keep in mind, I'm not an expert and probably only know of half of them, keep in mind, almost anything a human can get a non-human primate (monkey, chimp) can get or give to us. Jenn http://ucat.us http://ucat.us/domesticcatlinks.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, the Cornell website is inadvertently suggesting that FeLV is a threat to a fetus by telling pregnant women to avoid cats with FeLV...this is *not* the case! Toxoplasmosis is the only parasite (or disease, aside from rabies), that I know of, that can be transmitted to humans. It is highly unlikely that Tom even carries this parasite, but common sense measures should be taken when handling the litter box (the parasite is shed in the feces of infected cats)...always wash your hands after cleaning the box (wear gloves for even more protection!)...or, better yet, have another member of the household clean the box while you're pregnant! Personally, I would welcome 9 litterbox-free months! -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.7.1 - Release Date: 6/13/2005
