International
New York may be famous for rats, but cats are not far behind, and now researchers have found that more than half the stray cats they tested in the Big Apple had at least one species of parasite. The most common parasites were species from a group of roundworms called Toxocara. The researchers found that male cats were significantly more likely to be infected with these roundworms and, along with juvenile cats (<1 year), they shed significantly higher numbers of eggs, making them “super-shedders”, driving environmental contamination. The researchers say this data shows that stray cats present a long-term public health risk.
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