Anthropogenic food provisioning and cat-keeping practices of urban households in Yucatán, Mexico

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Anthropogenic food provisioning and cat-keeping practices of urban households in Yucatán, Mexico David Oseguera Montiel1 and Eliza Ruiz Izaguiire2* 1 Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico 2 Independent researcher, Mexico Domestic cats (Felis catus) are precocious species that when left uncontrolled can grow to levels that exceed the capacity of the environment. Cats are generally found on the streets of Mérida City, and a wide array of zoonoses (e.g. Toxoplasmosis), that have cats as hosts, have been reported in the Yucatán Peninsula. Both owned (if allowed outdoors) and unowned cats comprise a free-roaming (FR) cat population. Outdoor cats can be easily confused with unowned cats, and households can be visited by both cat categories. Cat-keeping practices, such as allowing cats outdoors, and using or not a litter box, are factors that could influence cat population dynamics and zoonoses transmission. Furthermore, anthropogenic food provisioning of free-roaming cats can contribute to increased immunity, and have an effect in population density. A survey was conducted, using a convenience sample of clients that visited veterinary practices in Mérida City, Mexico. Two multivariable random effects logistic regression models were developed with individual cat data for the dependent variables: allowed outdoors, and sterilization. Dependent variables included spatial data of two city areas. We analyzed 306 questionnaires from 19 practices. About half of all households (including non cat-owning households) reported visits from FR cats (further referred to as “visiting cats”, and in about one third of households FR cats were fed. More households reported visiting cats (n=74, 78%) if FR cats were fed compared to non-feeding households (n=87, 41%) (χ2=33.5, df=1, p<0.001). In cats from cat-keeping households, the majority of cats were acquired from the street 60% (n=289), and 61% (n=325) were allowed outdoors. Most cats (65%, n=338) were sterilized with differences among males (61%) and females (69%) (p=0.05). About half (n=271, 51%) of cats had rabies vaccination, and about one fourth of cats (n=136, 26%) other vaccines, also with differences among sterilized and non-sterilized cats. Keywords: Cat management, zoonosis, Free roaming, Public Health, Mexico Conference: GeoVet 2019. Novel spatio-temporal approaches in the era of Big Data, Davis, United States, 8 Oct - 10 Oct, 2019. Presentation Type: Regular oral presentation Topic: Spatial data sources, open data, accessibility and information integration Citation: Oseguera Montiel D and Ruiz Izaguiire E (2019). Anthropogenic food provisioning and cat-keeping practices of urban households in Yucatán, Mexico. Front. Vet. Sci. Conference Abstract: GeoVet 2019. Novel spatio-temporal approaches in the era of Big Data. doi: 10.3389/conf.fvets.2019.05.00055 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 31 May 2019; Published Online: 27 Sep 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Eliza Ruiz Izaguiire, Independent researcher, Merida, Mexico, eliza.ruizizaguirre@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers David Oseguera Montiel Eliza Ruiz Izaguiire Google David Oseguera Montiel Eliza Ruiz Izaguiire Google Scholar David Oseguera Montiel Eliza Ruiz Izaguiire PubMed David Oseguera Montiel Eliza Ruiz Izaguiire Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.