Can a cat become infected with a bacteria or virus from rat?

[Psinter]

I once saw a cat in the streets playing with a living mouse. The mouse wasn't moving, but it was breathing. The cat moved it from paw to paw and then took it in its mouth and moved it to another place where it kept playing with it.

Can a cat become infected with bacteria or virus for playing/hunting rats/mouses?

 

[gjonesy]

Theoretically yes, my understanding is that any mammal can be infected with rabies, if the mouse is infected then the cat is exposed.

 

[Psinter]

Theoretically yes, my understanding is that any mammal can be infected with rabies, if the mouse is infected then the cat is exposed.

I see. Thanks for replying.

I was a little bit curious.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Yes - toxoplasmosis actually alters rat and mouse behavior such that the prey become easier for the cat to catch.
. "The effect of Toxoplasma gondii and other parasites on activity levels in wild and hybrid Rattus norvegicus". Parasitology 109 (5): 583–589. doi:10.1017/s0031182000076460. ISSN 0031-1820. PMID 7831094

In North America ~23% of adults have been or are currently infected with toxoplasmosis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/toxoplasmosis.html

And yes, there are both bacteria and virus diseases that are transmitted from small rodents to domestic cats. Toxoplasmosis is a single celled organism related to malaria. Not a bacterium or a virus.

 

[Psinter]

Yes - toxoplasmosis actually alters rat and mouse behavior such that the prey become easier for the cat to catch.
. "The effect of Toxoplasma gondii and other parasites on activity levels in wild and hybrid Rattus norvegicus". Parasitology 109 (5): 583–589. doi:10.1017/s0031182000076460. ISSN 0031-1820. PMID 7831094

In North America ~23% of adults have been or are currently infected with toxoplasmosis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/toxoplasmosis.html

And yes, there are both bacteria and virus diseases that are transmitted from small rodents to domestic cats. Toxoplasmosis is a single celled organism related to malaria. Not a bacterium or a virus.

Very informative. Thanks!

It calls my attention how toxoplasmosis alters the rat and mouse behavior. I find it interesting and curious for something to alter the host behavior in such a way that increases its chances of multiplying. Very interesting indeed.

 

[gjonesy]

Theoretically yes,

The reason I used the words "theoretically yes" is because not all exposers will result in an infection. There was a case in California where a young girl contracted rabies from a cat that was around her school or neighborhood. The CDC confirmed that she had rabies. They said she was fully infected and was treated but she was expected to die but some how she recovered. All of the stray cats in the neighborhood were captured and none of them tested positive for rabies. It was postulated that the cat had either ran off and died, or that one of the captured cats had recently attacked a rabid animal and the scratch the girl received inoculated her with the virus.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rabies-miracle-california-girl-survives-dread-disease-without-vaccine/
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6104a1.htm

 

[lisab]

A cat I had long ago got sick with "Songbird Fever", which is the common name for salmonellosis in cats:

http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/digestive/c_ct_salmonellosis#

She was only 2 or 3 months old, and became very, very sick. But she did survive thanks to emergency veterinary care.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Hmm. Humans get all manner of pathogens from what we eat - Listeria, Salmonella, tapeworms, pinworms - (like @lisab above) so it should come as no surprise that food-borne illness should be something that happens to many animals. Parasitism is exceedingly common in Nature, simply because it is such a great way for organisms to thrive.

PW Ewald provided a lot of primary research and helped to define the field of the Ecology and Evolutuion of parasitism. from 1987
an example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3304078

 

[Lonnie Klein]

I also think that rabies can affect cat too.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Here: http://pets.webmd.com/cats/rabies-cats#1
@Lonnie Klein Discusses rabies in cats.