Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Bacterial and parasite causes of diarrhea in Northern California cats
By Queen, E V et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2012·Loomis Basin Veterinary Clinic, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Prevalence of selected bacterial and parasitic agents in feces from diarrheic and healthy control cats from Northern California.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A study looked at 219 cats with diarrhea and 54 healthy cats to find out what germs might be causing the diarrhea. They found that a type of bacteria called Campylobacter was less common in the cats with diarrhea compared to the healthy ones. Interestingly, younger cats under 2 years old were more likely to have intestinal parasites. The researchers concluded that traditional tests for bacteria in feces aren't very helpful for diagnosing diarrhea in cats, and that newer testing methods are better for identifying certain bacteria, although finding them doesn't always mean the cat is sick.
People also search for: cat diarrhea causes · Campylobacter in cats · cat intestinal parasites treatment
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Bacterial and parasitic agents are commonly implicated as causes of diarrhea in cats, but there is a paucity of information evaluating epidemiological and prevalence factors associated with most of these organisms in cats. OBJECTIVES: Determine the prevalence of selected enteropathogens in diarrheic and nondiarrheic cats. ANIMALS: A total of 219 diarrheic and 54 nondiarrheic cats. METHODS: Prospective study. Fresh fecal specimens were submitted for centrifugation flotation, culture, ELISA (Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin [CPE], and C. difficile toxin A [TcdA]) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing (Tritrichomonas foetus and Campylobacter spp.). An epidemiologic questionnaire was completed for each cat. RESULTS: Campylobacter was isolated from significantly fewer diarrheic (21/219 or 9.6%) versus nondiarrheic cats (15/54 or 27.8%, P = .001), and was detected in 74 of 131 cats (56.5%) via PCR. Campylobacter jejuni, C. helveticus, and C. upsaliensis were detected in 6.8, 100, and 44.6% of the 74 cats. Multiple Campylobacter spp. were identified in 47.3% of these cats. All cats were negative on fecal culture for Salmonella and for C. difficile TcdA via ELISA. CPE was detected in 9/219 diarrheic (4.1%) and in 1/54 nondiarrheic cats (1.9%, P = .69). Cats < 2 years were significantly more likely to be infected with intestinal parasites (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Routine fecal cultures and toxin immunoassays for detection of bacteria are of limited diagnostic value in diarrheic cats. Molecular-based testing is superior to fecal cultures for detection and identification of Campylobacter spp., but positive test results do not correlate to the presence of disease.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22182203/