• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.333-338
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• 2013

We investigated the prevalence of feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) in stray and household cats in different regions of Seoul, Republic of Korea. Blood samples were collected from a total of 200 cats (100 stray cats and 100 household cats) and examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The overall prevalence of FPV was 2%. Among test-positive cats, 3% (3/100) were stray cats and 1% (1/100) was a household cat. The incidence of FPV was higher in juvenile cats (< 1 year, 1.5%) than in adult cats (> 1-year-old, 0.5%). The FPV-positive rates of healthy infected cats and sick cats were 1.9% (3/156) and 2.2% (1/44), respectively. We found the positive rate of vaccinated and unvaccinated cats to be 1.3% (1/77) and 2.4% (3/123), respectively. Unlike antibody tests, FPV antigen tests detected current infections in stray and household cats. Therefore, these tests can help in disease diagnosis and treatment. To our knowledge, our study is the first to survey the prevalence of FPV in different cat populations across Seoul. We found a high prevalence of FPV infection in stray and juvenile cats. Therefore, proper vaccination and surveillance are important to prevent FPV outbreaks.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.267-270
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• 2010

The principal objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in household and stray cats in Seoul, Republic of Korea. We collected blood samples from 72 stray and 80 household cats, and all samples were examined by ELISA and nested peR. The overall positive rates of Toxoplasma gondii in stray cats were 38.9% (28/72), with 15.3% (11/72) in ELISA and 30.6% (22/72) in peR. The positive rate in male stray cats was Slightly higher than that of female stray cats. The highest positive rate of T. gondii infection was noted in Gangnam and Songpa populations in ELISA and in Gwangjin population in PCR. In household cats, however, we could not detect any specific antibodies or DNA for T. gondii. In conclusion, we recognized that the infection rate of toxoplasmosis in stray cats in Seoul was considerably high but household cats were free from infection.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.249-252
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• 2022

Giardiasis is widespread all over the world, and it is a disease that causes both acute and chronic digestive symptoms. It is zoonotic disease that affects animals and humans. There are few studies on giardiasis in stray cats due to difficulties in catching and sampling. Therefore, this study evaluated the prevalence of giardiasis in stray cats in the Daejeon city because of increasing interest as zoonotic disease. The specimens were the feces of stray cats captured for the neutering project (TNR) in Daejeon; 30 fecal samples were collected from 2021 to 2022 in each of 5 districts in Daejeon. A total of 150 samples were collected. All samples were tested for giardiasis using the Giardia SNAP kit (SNAP^Ⓡ test, IDEXX Laboratories. Inc., Westbrook, ME). The overall prevalence rate was 46 out of 150 cats (30.7%). By age, 25 out of 71 juvenile cats (35.2%) were positive, and 21 out of 79 adult cats (26.6%) were positive. A total of 19 out of 69 cats (27.5%) with diarrhea were positive, and 27 out of 81 asymptomatic cats (33.3%) were positive. For gender, 38 out of 99 females (38.4%) were positive, and 8 out of 51 males (15.7%) were positive. The positive rate of giardiasis in stray cats was over 30%, which is high compared to other research results. It is necessary to increase the public's awareness of the value of deworming stray cats and the sanitation of people who have come into contact with them.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.291-295
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• 2009

A dead stray cat was necropsied for zoonotic feline disease monitoring. Grossly, there were no specific lesions. Major microscopic lesions included lymphocytic meningoencephalitis, malacia, and tissue cysts in the cerebral and cerebellar cortex. The size and shape of tissue cysts were identical to those of Apicomplexa including Toxoplasma (T.) gondii. Bradyzoites in the tissue cyst were strongly positive for T. gondii by immunohistochemistry. Electron microscopy revealed that bradyzoites within the tissue cyst were similar to the morphological features of T. gondii. Fresh tissue samples were examined by a polymerase chain reaction assay and resulted in a specific band of T. gondii only in the brain. Based on the results, this case was diagnosed as toxoplasmosis. This is the first case of toxoplasmic meningoencephalitis in a cat in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.281-290
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to determine the zoonotic diseases of stray dog and cat in Gwangju, Korea. We chose randomly 300 samples which is 265, dogs and 35, cats in the public animal shelter from March to August of 2013. The animals' blood biochemistry values measured, and the out of normal values were 49.7% GOT, 36.3% GPT, and 78.0% GGT. The tested items were Dirofilaria immitis, Toxoplasma gondii, Brucella canis, Rabies virus. The positive results were 10% Dirofilaria immitis, 6.3% Toxoplasma gondii (antibody detected), 10% Rabies (antibody detected) but 0.0% in B. canis. The stray animals' antibody antigen positivity take effect high from Mar.-May. Therefore, we propose that those diseases should be monitering and vaccinating in Korea.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.7.1-7.7
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• 2024

Background: Infections of cats with Echinococcus granulosus is uncommon because the cat is not part of the parasite life cycle that a carnivorous and another herbivore represent. Nevertheless, it occurs incidentally when eating food or drinking water contaminated with the worm's larva, especially with the presence of the definitive host (dogs), in this case, the infections are concentrated in stray or outside cats. For this reason, this study examined the possibility of cat infection with E. granulosus and diagnosed the common genotype of this infection. Objective: This study examined the possibility of cat infection with E. granulosus and diagnosed the common genotype of this infection. Methods: Four of the 37 cats that had died in different accidents developed cystic echinococcosis (CE). The cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COX1) gene was initially amplified and sequenced to determine if these cysts belonged to E. granulosus, in beginning. The DNA fragments resulting from sequencing were then compared and aligned with other sequences using the Gene Bank database. Finally, a phylogenetic tree was drawn according to the sequence data obtained from cox1 genes sequencing, and the MEGA 7.0 phylogenetic analysis program was utilized. Results: Four different sequences were deposited in the Gen Bank with accession numbers (ON795961 to ON795964), all of which belong to the G1 genotype. Approximately 84% and 100% of these sequences aligned with G1 (AB622277.1) and G1 (MG722980.1), respectively. Conclusions: G1 is the dominant genotype that causes cat infections, even though the cat's EC infection was incidental.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.249-256
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• 1999

A total of 198 sera from stray cats was assayed against Toxoplasma gondii antigen by western blot. Out of 198 sera assayed, 26 sera (13.1％) showed typical blot patterns against T gondii. When spotted by ELISA absorbance and indirect latex agglutination lest (ILAT) titer, all 26 cases were distributed over the cut-off value of ELISA whereas 24 cases (92.3％) were in the positive range of 1:32 or higher and 2 cases in negative range by ILAT. Among western blot negative 172 sera, 162 cases were negative in both ILAT and ELISA while 10 cases were reactive falsely such that three cases were ILAT positive with 1:32 titer and 9 cases were ELISA positive (2 cases overlapped). These 10 cases reacted peculiarly without typical binding pattern in Western blot. Sandwich-ELISA was performed with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) of Tg563 (30 kDa, SAG 1), Tg505 (22 kDa, SAG2), Tg605 (43 kDa, SAG3), Tg556 (28 kDa, GRA2), Tg737 (32 kDa, GRA6). Tg695 (66 kDa, ROP2), Tg786 (42 kDa, ROP6), and Tg621 (32 kDa, anonymous but cytosolic) clone, respectively. All western blot-positive cases were in the positive range and negative cases in the negative range clearly. Among the 10 false reactive cases, 3 cases were in the positive range with one or more mAbs. All mAbs used in this study were confirmed to be specific to T. gondii infection as a standardized sandwich-ELISA to differentiate it from other pathogens.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.388-400
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• 2022

This study analyzed the Internet consumption behavior concerning pet care through in-depth interviews with 11 people who take care of pets. In this study, along with owners of domestic companion animals, stray cat caregivers were included as pet consumers, which have not yet been included in this category in existing research. Internet consumption was found to differ between people with dogs and people with cats. In the case of dog owners, they bought a lot of bath products, clothes harnesses, and strollers that were not appropriate for cats. Although the pet-poor phenomenon is known to occur a lot among young consumers, who care for pets behavior at the cost of money spent on themselves, even stray cat caregivers, mostly middle-aged women, are wary of becoming pet-poor. It cannot be said that there are gender differences in online shopping of pet consumers. In general, women, who did mainly Internet shopping, and if they are not used to using the Internet, their husbands made purchases online instead.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.691-694
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to conduct a survey of Dirofilaria immitis infection among stray cats in Korea using nested PCR. We included 235 stray cats (121 females and 114 males) and evaluated each for the presence of feline heartworm infection. Blood samples were collected from 135 cats in Daejeon, 50 cats in Seoul, and 50 cats from Gyeonggi-do (Province). Of the 235 DNA samples, 14 (6.0%) were positive for D. immitis. The prevalence of infection in male cats (8/114, 7.0%) tended to be higher than that in female cats (6/121, 5.0%), but the difference was not statistically significant. In each location, 8, 2, and 4 cats were positive for infection, respectively, based on DNA testing. No significant differences in the prevalence were observed among the geographic regions, although the rate of infection was higher in Gyeonggi-do (8.0%) than Daejeon (5.9%) and Seoul (4.0%). We submitted 7 of the 14 D. immitis DNA-positive samples for sequencing analysis. All samples corresponded to partial D. immitis cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene sequences with 99% homology to the D. immitis sequence deposited in GenBank (accession no. FN391553). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey using nested PCR to analyze the prevalence of D. immitis in stray cats in Korea.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.119-124
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to genetically characterize isolates of Giardia duodenalis and to determine if zoonotic potential of G. duodenalis could be found in stray cats from urban and suburban environments in Guangzhou, China. Among 102 fresh fecal samples of stray cats, 30 samples were collected in Baiyun district (urban) and 72 in Conghua district (suburban). G. duodenalis specimens were examined using light microscopy, then the positive specimens were subjected to PCR amplification and subsequent sequencing at 4 loci such as glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh), triose phosphate isomerase (tpi), ${\beta}$-giardin (bg), and small subunit ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA) genes. The phylogenetic trees were constructed using obtained sequences by MEGA5.2 software. Results show that 9.8% (10/102) feline fecal samples were found to be positive by microscopy, 10% (3/30) in Baiyun district and 9.7% (7/72) in Conghua district. Among the 10 positive samples, 9 were single infection (8 isolates, assemblage A; 1 isolate, assemblage F) and 1 sample was mixed infection with assemblages A and C. Based on tpi, gdh, and bg genes, all sequences of assemblage A showed complete homology with AI except for 1 isolate (CHC83). These findings not only confirmed the occurrence of G. duodenalis in stray cats, but also showed that zoonotic assemblage A was found for the first time in stray cats living in urban and suburban environments in China.