The other night, my vet student roommates lectured me that we "human medicine" doctors need to stop scaring people about pregnant women getting toxoplasmosis from changing garfield's litter box. They claimed that kittens are the only ones to shed it in their feces. So I had to find some proof and here are the articles supporting their claim. In the limited time I spent, I didn't find an article specifically talking about kittens vs. cats, but this is just some of the articles that popped up on OMIM.
Sources of toxoplasma infection in pregnant women: European multicentre case-control study
This was a case control study performed in 6 European cities using 252 pregnant women w/either acute infection or w/IgM for anti-Toxoplasma gondii and 858 controls. Risk factors for infection included undercooked lamb, beef,
or game, contact with soil, and travel outside Europe and the
United States and Canada.
Contact with cats was not a risk factor.
Article found on: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/321/7254/142?view=full%26pmid=10894691
Prevention of toxoplasmosis in pregnancy: knowledge of risk factors.Kravetz JD, Federman DG.
Study was done to compare the knowledge of ocer 100 ob's, internists and fp's when counseling expectant mothers on risk factors for toxoplasmosis. It was found that ob's were more likely to give the appropriate information, but all groups "inappropriately advised avoidance of all cat contact".
Article found on OMIM taken from Infect Dis Obstet Gynecol. 2005 Sep;13(3):161-5.
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