A study of 87 free-roaming cats trapped through a New York City TNR program found more than half infected with at least one endoparasite—and identified juvenile males as high-intensity “super-shedders” of roundworm eggs.
More than half of free-roaming cats sampled across New York City’s boroughs were shedding at least one gastrointestinal parasite, with the zoonotic roundworm Toxocara the dominant finding, according to a study published July 8 in PLoS One.1 The work adds a hard number to a public health concern that has largely been inferred from soil surveys: the cats themselves appear to be the active biological source of the roundworm eggs contaminating city parks and playgrounds.
Researchers led by Pratap Kafle, DVM, PhD, DACVM (Parasitology), an assistant professor of parasitology at Rowan University’s Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine, opportunistically collected fecal and blood samples from 87 cats trapped during a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program run through Long Island University’s College of Veterinary Medicine between May and July 2023.1 Samples were run through centrifugal fecal flotation, coproantigen immunoassays, serology, and PCR for a panel of gastrointestinal and vector-borne parasites.
Roundworms lead, hookworms and coccidia follow
Fecal flotation showed that 57.5% of the 87 cats were positive for at least one endoparasite.1 Toxocara spp. was by far the most common at 54%, followed by Ancylostoma spp. (hookworm) at 13.8% and coccidia at 11.5%.1 Roughly one in five cats carried two or more species at once, most often a Toxocara–Ancylostoma co-infection.1…