Large populations of unowned cats constitute an animal welfare, ecological, societal, and public health issue worldwide.
Their relocation and homing are currently carried out in many parts of the world with the intention of relieving suffering and social problems, while contributing to ethical and humane population control in these cat populations.
An understanding of an individual cat’s lifestyle and disease status by veterinary team professionals and those working with cat charities can help to prevent severe cat stress and the spread of feline pathogens, especially vector-borne pathogens, which can be overlooked in cats. I
n this article, we discuss the issue of relocation and homing of unowned cats from a global perspective. We also review zoonotic and non-zoonotic infectious agents of cats and give a list of practical recommendations for veterinary team professionals dealing with homing cats.
Finally, we present a consensus statement consolidated at the 15th Symposium of the Companion Vector-Borne Diseases (CVBD) World Forum in 2020, ultimately to help veterinary team professionals understand the problem and the role they have in helping to prevent and manage vector-borne and other pathogens in relocated cats.
Ricardo Guillermo Maggi # 1, Vicky Halls # 2, Friederike Krämer# 3, Michael Lappin # 4, Maria Grazia Pennisi # 5, Andrew S Peregrine # 6, Xavier Roura # 7, Bettina Schunack # 8, Valeria Scorza # 4, Séverine Tasker# 9 10, Gad Baneth # 11, Patrick Bourdeau # 12, Dwight D Bowman # 13, Edward B Breitschwerdt # 14, Gioia Capelli# 15, Luís Cardoso # 16, Filipe Dantas-Torres # 17, Gerhard Dobler # 18, Lluís Ferrer# 19, Luigi Gradoni # 20, Peter Irwin # 21, Frans Jongejan # 22, Volkhard A J Kempf# 23, Barbara Kohn # 24, Susan Little # 25, Maxime Madder # 26, Carla Maia # 27, Mary Marcondes # 28, Guadalupe Miró # 29, Torsten Naucke# 30, Gaetano Oliva # 31, Domenico Otranto # 32, Barend L Penzhorn # 22, Martin Pfeffer # 33, Ángel Sainz# 29, SungShik Shin# 34, Laia Solano-Gallego # 19, Reinhard K Straubinger # 35, Rebecca Traub # 36, Ian Wright # 37
Parasit Vectors. 2022 Nov 8;15(1): 415.doi: 10.1186/s13071-022-05553-8.
1Department of Clinical Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. rgmaggi@ncsu.edu.
2International Cat Care, Tisbury, Wiltshire, UK.
3TransMIT GmbH, Giessen, Germany.
4Department of Clinical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
5Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
6Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.
7Hospital Clínic Veterinari, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
8Bayer Animal Health, Elanco Animal Health Inc, Leverkusen, Germany.
9Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Langford, UK.
10Linnaeus Veterinary Limited, Shirley, UK.
11Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.
12Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire, Nantes, France.
13Department Microbiology & Immunology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
14Department of Clinical Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
15Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Delle Venezie, Legnaro, Italy.
16Department of Veterinary Sciences, and Animal and Veterinary Research Centre (CECAV), University of Trás-Os-Montes E Alto Douro (UTAD), Vila Real, Portugal.
17Aggeu Magalhães Institute, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Recife, Brazil.
18Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Munich, Germany.
19Department Animal Medicine and Surgery, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
20Istituto Superiore Di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
21College of Veterinary Medicine, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia.
22Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, South Africa.
23Institute for Medical Microbiology and Infection Control and National Consiliary Laboratory for Bartonella (appointed by the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany), Goethe-University, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany.
24Clinic of Small Animals, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
25Department of Pathobiology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA.
26Clinglobal, Tamarin, Mauritius.
27Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
28School of Veterinary Medicine, São Paulo State University, São Paulo, Brazil.
29Animal Health Department, Veterinary Faculty, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
30LABOKLIN GmbH, Bad Kissingen, Germany.
31Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy.
32Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
33Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
34College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea.
35Chair for Bacteriology and Mycology, Faculty for Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
36Melbourne Veterinary School, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
37The Mount Veterinary Practice, Fleetwood, Lancashire, UK.
#Contributed equally.
Free PMC article