Toxoplasma gondii and raw food. Any thoughts or personal experiences?

[konuku]

I have read in several articles that raw food can easily contain this parasite which is linked to mental disease. As my kittens are generally house cats (that go for walks from time-to-time), they are generally protected from the Great Outdoors and exposure to toxoplasma gondii through wild rodent contact, such as mice.

But I have never thought about exposing them through raw meat! I feed mostly rabbit.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this? This has made me a bit nervous. I certainly wouldn't want to be the one who gave my cats this nasty parasite.

 

[kkoerner]

I don't have the answer for you, but I think that this is taken care of by freezing the food for several days? I could be wrong....but wanted to say that rabbits are not a rodent!

 

[konuku]

Thanks for that update. I assumed because they have incisor teeth, they were. But it seems that they have an extra tooth which changes things. 

That is a good point about the freezing of meat. I have given freshly made raw meat after I have first made, but I will definitely stop doing that. Eek!

I did read this quote: "freezing at either -10 degrees C for 3 days or -20 degrees C for 2 days will deactivate Toxoplasma gondii cysts in meat and tissues," which is found in this research paper:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18681796

I just need to test the temperature of my freezer.

My cats are currently being watched by someone who has 8 cats of her own. This makes me a bit nervous as I did not even think to ask about whether her cats have been tested. They were all rescue cats and while they are indoor cats now, their past may have subjected them to an outdoor life or a shelter which would probably have housed at least some infected cats.

 

[kkoerner]

The freezing can be done on the meat before it is made into food, so you would be able to still feed some freshly made food.