CIDRAP-Good news: Your cat probably won't give you Giardia

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Good news: Your cat probably won't give you Giardia

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Good news: Your cat probably won't give you Giardia​

Sarah Boden

Today at 11:32 a.m.
Public Health

Misc Emerging Topics


There's a lot of gross stuff that you might get from your cat. But Giardia probably isn't one of them.

Only 1.2% of fecal samples from cats were found to be positive for a form of the microscopic parasite that's potentially harmful to humans, according to a study published this week in PLOS One.

Stool was collected from 157,616 cats in the United States and Canada. About 6% had any genotype of Giardia duodenalis. However, only about one in five of those positive samples carried genetic assemblages A or B, which can infect a range of host species, including humans.

In both cats and people, a Giardia infection can be subclinical, or asymptomatic. But it can cause a host of issues in people, including diarrhea, nausea, dehydration, hives, and swollen joints.

To avoid getting the parasite from your cat, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises regularly cleaning its litterbox and keeping its fur clean of poop. Also, ideally, cats are kept indoors.

Midwest cats most likely to have​

The study found that male cats and cats one-year-old or older that had not been spayed or neutered (intact) were more likely to have any form of Giardia.

Though if the cat was under a year old, spayed or neutered kittens were about 30% more likely than intact kittens to have the parasite. The authors speculate this is because kittens in the study were more likely to live in shelters or rescue settings, where they may have had higher exposure rates to the parasite, or they experienced more stress, which may have suppressed their immune response.

Giardia can survive for months in moist, cold environments, and samples collected during winter were more likely to be positive. The parasite was also more likely to be found in stool from US cats living in the Midwest, followed by the Northeast and West. Cats in the US South were the least likely to have it.

Wash your hands​

While the findings weren't surprising, having such a large study confirm that Giardia isn't a major public health threat is valuable information, said Jane Sykes, PhD, MBA, who specializes in infectious diseases at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

"It's a good study, because there were so many, so many cats in the study … which is amazing," said Sykes, who did not contribute to this study.

However, Sykes disagrees with the authors' conclusion that the results show the importance of routine fecal screening in domestic cats. She noted that several of the paper's co-authors are employees of Antech Diagnostics, Inc., a veterinary diagnostics company owned by Mars Petcare, which funded the research and study materials, including its commercial polymerase chain reaction test.

Many companion animals have some form of Giardia, said Sykes, and are perfectly fine. Also, similar to overuse of antibiotics, there are concerns about growing resistance to antiparasitic medications.

Instead of looking for asymptomatic Giardia, Sykes said that pet owners should focus on general hygiene, including handwashing after touching their pet and before eating.