Cool Cat in a Hot Zone

Summary:

You would think that Ventura, California and the Front Range of Colorado's Rocky Mountains wouldn't have much in common, except for the fact people both live there, but there's something else linking these two urban areas. It's fury, fierce, and looks similar to a typical house cat. Unfortunately, this feline also shares something with the people it lives alongside: gastrointestinal diseases. We, humans, have passes it on to the Bobcat. Pathogen spillover, which is when a epidemics in a population are transmitted not to other members of the population but to a different population, is the cause of many diseases in both people and wildlife. When animals, such as the bobcat can be found not to far from an urban setting is more likely to pick up parasites. A team of scientist including Sue VandeWoude, Kevin Crooks, Mike Lappin, Andrea Scorza, Scott Carver, Sarah Bevins, and Seth Riley took notice to the diseases effect on bobcats. They gathered samples from bobcats from the urban areas of Ventura and Denver and compared them to samples from rural areas of Colorado. The studies showed that cats nearby cities were more likely to carry disease than ones from rural areas because of human exposer. Bobcats are widespread in North America, which would make it easy for them to transmit pathogens to another species. But how was it spread in the first place if humans and bobcats are hardly ever  in close contact? The answer is in the water. Humans and bobcats both have access to bodies of water. According to Scott Carver, "Our result sugest that humans transmitted these pathogens to bobcats, likely through contaminated water or other environmental sources." During the test, there was no evidence of the bobcats being ill, but that does not mean they weren't. Even if bobcats are not affected, that does not mean they can't pass it on to a different species that could be greatly affected. 

NOS Themes:

Science is collaborative: A team of scientist including Sue VandeWoude, Kevin Crooks, Mike Lappin and Andrea Scorza of Colorado State University; Scott Carver of the University of Tasmania; Sarah Bevins of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Seth Riley of the U.S. National Park Service.
Science is based on evidence: Because there was not evidence of the bobcats being sick while carrying the pathogen, the scientist could not concluded that it was harmful to the cats.

Link:

http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125924&org=NSF