Please use the search engine or one of the indexes to see if the information you need is already online. Please see Subscriber info for details. I was wondering to what extent cats in general are a risk factor for birth defects. Thank you for any information you can provide. The risk to pregnant women, from cats, is primarily due to the disease toxoplasmosis, which is caused by a protozoan, not a bacteria.
Protozoans are single celled organisms that sometimes have complex life cycles.
In the case of toxoplasmosis, the organism that causes it is Toxoplasma gondii. This parasite is found everywhere that cats are found. Many mammals can be infected with toxoplasmosis, but only cats shed the organism in their stools, where they can be passed to other animals. Oddly enough, though, most humans are not infected because of exposure to Toxoplasma organisms in the soil, litterpan or other source of exposure cat stools. Most humans are infected by eating undercooked meat, especially pork and lamb.