Surprise! Another Scary Diseases Associated with Feral Cats

Two trends could be on a collision course. One is the explosion of the feral cat population as cat-rights groups’ fight to end the capturing and killing of feral cats and human exposure to rabies.
Dr. Charles Rupprecht, the director of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control says that dogs were the main carrier of rabies until the 1970s. But with the round ups of strays and the mandatory vaccination programs, rabies was pretty much eradicated. But that hasn’t happen with cats. He says that people didn’t think that it was OK to have stray dogs around but some people think it’s Ok to have stray cats around.
Some people believe it’s Ok to create artificial cat colonies that are exposed to wildlife that can transmit rabies. We are creating a new ecosystem with the unmanaged growth and expansion of our suburbs. We are moving into undisturbed habitats that are known to have wildlife that carry diseases like rabies and the “Black Death” and introducing an invasive species , the free-roaming cats. These cats are and will be contracting and spreading diseases we know about and some we don’t know about yet.
It’s reported by the CDC that up until 2006, 300 rabid cats were reported each year in the United States. Jesse Blanton, a CDC epidemiologist says that 16% of those that had to undergo rabies treatment got the deadly virus from feral cats. Now that is not a whole lot but add this into the equation.
The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates that the number of feral cats has exploded from about 60 million to about 150 million since 2006.
The feral cat lovers say that trapping, neutering, vaccinating and releasing cats back into the community means that they will remain healthy and disease free. But come on people, vaccinating programs for 60 million plus cats are not through enough to end any diseases threat. If you could even pull it off.
For rabies alone, treatment for a cat would require catching the cat and releasing it 3 times. Once when they are kittens, then a year later you would have to trap it for its follow up shots. Then trapped and treated every 3 years to adequately vaccinate the cat.
Wheeler’s Pest Control carries a Department of Fish and Wildlife Trapping Lic. If you have any problems with feral cats, possums, raccoons or skunks, just give Wheeler’s Pest Control Orange County a call. We’d be glade to help you solve any of your pest control problems.