Felidae, Fischer de Waldheim, 1817

Holland, Celia V., 2023, A walk on the wild side: A review of the epidemiology of Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati in wild hosts, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 22, pp. 216-228 : 221

3. Felidae as hosts of T. cati

T. cati is transmissible to wild felids as a result of ingestion of embryonated eggs from the environment and the consumption of paratenic hosts mainly small rodents and birds ( Otranto and Deplazes, 2019). Domestic cats have been shown to also transmit T. cati via the transmammary route (Coati et al., 2004) but such a route of transmission has not been confirmed in wild felids ( Otranto and Deplazes, 2019).

A total of 21 species of felids have been shown to act as definitive hosts for T. cati (see Table 5 and Table S1) with one species, the Southern tiger cat ( Leopardus guttulus ) described as harbouring eggs detected only to the generic level as Toxocara spp. In general, the number of publications focusing on felid host species is fewer in number, reflecting the general paucity of data on T. cati ( Maciag et al., 2022) . On the basis of the numbers of papers listed in Table S1 (Supplementary material), the top two species, Eurasian lynx ( Lynx lynx ) and Bobcat ( Lynx rufus ) are described in more detail in the text and in Table 6. The other two Lynx species – Iberian lynx ( Lynx pardinus ) and Canadian lynx ( Felis canadensis ) are also included for completeness.