Preventing meningitis caused by parasites

[AlohaSteven]

In reply to Menehune's question "Really - can cats become infected, suffer - can they pass it on?"

Looking online, there is an odd absence of scientific papers describing Angiostrongylus cantonensis &/or rat lungworm disease in cats. Maybe I am just using the wrong keywords and search engines?

There are plenty of lungworms which commonly afflict cats (ever see a cat coughing? It is fairly likely this was due to lungworm, if a furball was not subsequently produced), but to me it seems unclear in the record if A. cantonensis is in fact one of them. Theoretically, it seems like Puna's A. cantonensis should equally be a problem for cats as for seemingly every other mammal, but perhaps for some reason A. cantonensis is not in demonstrated fact a big issue for cats?

Lungworms in Cats
http://www.petplace.com/cats/lungworms-i...page1.aspx

As to cats passing A. cantonensis on, that should not be able to happen. The rat lungworm only successfully reaches adulthood in rodents (rats, for sure; I am unclear whether or not sexually mature adult A. cantonensis can set up house in the cardiovascular systems of mice) whereas in other mammals from fruit bats to humans the A. cantonensis larvae die before reaching adulthood.

If anyone finds more info on this topic then please do post and share it.



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A pleasant slideshow: http://www.thejoymovie.com

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