🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This study linked an epizootic of severe notoedric mange in urban bobcats and mountain lions to exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides. By combining disease surveillance, necropsy and toxicology in ra…

S. P. D. Riley, C. Bromley, R. H. Poppenga, et al. · Journal of Wildlife Management · 2007

This study connected the felid-shed parasite Toxoplasma gondii to deaths of threatened southern sea otters along the California coast. Because cats are the only definitive hosts that shed environmenta…

M. A. Miller, I. A. Gardner, C. Kreuder, et al. · International Journal for Parasitology · 2002

Cytauxzoon felis is a tick-transmitted protozoan that causes a frequently fatal disease in domestic cats, with bobcats serving as the natural reservoir host. This overview synthesizes the parasite’s l…

Serosurveys consistently reveal high Toxoplasma exposure in wild felids, reflecting their role as both definitive hosts and predators of infected prey. This overview synthesizes prevalence patterns ac…

A growing body of work links sublethal anticoagulant rodenticide exposure to severe mange in urban bobcats and mountain lions, implicating chemical immunosuppression as the hidden driver. This overvie…

Some Toxoplasma infections in southern sea otters involve unusual atypical genotypes, including a so-called Type X strain rarely seen in domestic cats. This overview surveys research suggesting that w…

Modern tracking technologies have transformed how disease is studied in elusive wild cats. This overview surveys the use of camera traps and GPS telemetry to investigate felid disease ecology, from de…

Felids living at the edges of cities, such as bobcats and mountain lions in California, face a distinctive disease landscape shaped by human activity. This overview surveys the disease ecology of urba…

Tick-borne diseases are emerging and shifting in wild felids as tick distributions change and molecular tools reveal new pathogens. This overview surveys the changing landscape of tick-borne disease i…

Cats, both domestic and wild, are the only definitive hosts in which Toxoplasma gondii completes sexual reproduction and sheds environmentally resistant oocysts. This overview surveys the ecology of t…

Beyond bovine tuberculosis, felids can be affected by other mycobacteria, including the agents of feline leprosy that cause nodular skin disease. This overview surveys what is known about these atypic…

Fleas transmit a range of pathogens to felids, including Bartonella species responsible for cat-scratch disease, hemotropic mycoplasmas that cause anemia, and the plague bacterium. This overview surve…

The risk that domestic-cat pathogens reach wild felids and other wildlife scales with the density and distribution of free-roaming cats, especially near protected areas. This overview surveys research…

Wild cats host a diverse array of helminths, including roundworms such as Toxocara and Toxascaris, tapeworms like Spirometra and Taenia, hookworms and lungworms, acquired largely through their prey. T…

The discovery that a terrestrial cat parasite kills marine mammals reshaped understanding of how pathogens cross ecosystem boundaries. This overview synthesizes research on the flow of Toxoplasma oocy…

Capturing and sampling wild felids is costly and risky, so researchers increasingly turn to non-invasive methods, especially analysis of feces, to detect pathogens and parasites. This overview surveys…

Notoedric mange, caused by Notoedres cati mites, has driven severe, sometimes locally devastating outbreaks in bobcats, particularly around urbanizing areas of California. This overview synthesizes th…

A felid’s diet largely determines its parasite burden, as many worms and protozoa are acquired by eating infected prey. This overview surveys how prey-mediated transmission shapes the parasitic fauna…

Beyond domestic cats, wild felids such as bobcats and pumas sustain natural sylvatic cycles of Toxoplasma, shedding oocysts that infect wild prey and contribute to environmental contamination. This ov…

Toxoplasma is maintained in both domestic cycles centered on house cats and sylvatic cycles driven by wild felids, and the two intersect in complex ways. This overview surveys how domestic and wild tr…

Ticks, fleas, mosquitoes and tsetse flies transmit many of the pathogens that affect wild cats, making vector ecology central to felid disease. This overview surveys the vectors responsible for spread…

Because cats are relatively susceptible to plague and range widely, wild and domestic felids serve as useful sentinels for detecting Yersinia pestis circulation. This overview surveys how serosurveys…

This synthesis used southern sea otters as sentinels to trace how the cat-derived parasite Toxoplasma gondii moves from land into the sea. The authors integrated parasitology, oceanography and epidemi…

P. A. Conrad, M. A. Miller, C. Kreuder, et al. · International Journal for Parasitology · 2005