Studies on the possibility of the excretion of toxoplasms in the secretions and excreta of cats after oral infection with Toxoplasma cysts and oocysts
Kuhn, D.; Warnecke, M.; Centurier, H.
Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche Wochenschrift 86(4): 69-72
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0005-9366 Accession: 000208238
Six coccidia-free cats fed mouse brains and hearts containing cysts of the avirulent T. gondii strain K 1983 and another six infected orally with 500000 sporulated oocysts of the strain, recovered from cat faeces, showed a symptomless infection apart from slight rises of body temperature and in the former cats, an enlargement of superficial lymph nodes. In both groups, the titre in the Sabin-Feldman test showed a comparable rise in the case of oocyst infection at a delay of 6 days. Oocysts were passed with the faeces on days 4-15 after cyst infection in four cases, and on days 26-39 after oocyst infection-a longer prepatent period than has been reported hitherto. By i/p inoculation of mice, toxoplasms were recovered from most organs, particularly brain, heart, lungs, diaphragm, muscle and, in some cases, the eyes, but never from conjunctival and nasal secretions, saliva, urine or fresh faeces up to 45 days, when the experiment was ended. Although only 1.4% of cats have been found to excrete oocysts under natural conditions [V.B. 42, abst. 3394] and no toxoplasms were found to be excreted by serologically positive cats, the role of this animal as a possible source of infection cannot be excluded.