by Gwion » 10 Feb 2016, 10:09 am
Bill, you probably get a bit of both at this time of year; ie.: cats dumped after school holidays and lots of ferals breeding up.
I've done a lot of reading on Toxo recently and it seems that kittens are main cause of spread, as once the initial infection has taken place, the animals (all animals susceptible to toxo) are then immune to further infection. However, as cats are the only animal in which the parasite can complete it's life cycle, during the period of initial infection in cats, usually as kittens, they spread the parasitic eggs in their faeces. The parasite is not really known to cause huge losses in adult livestock, it's more an issue of disrupting the lambing/kidding cycle, producing reabsorbed foetus, still born, or live born that cannot suckle due to undeveloped brains, and so die after a day or two.
To be honest, i haven't had much time to chase cats yet and have had the game cameras out getting footage of some devils i have found on the block. I do like this valerian idea, though and might have to give it a go before my (few) sheep are in lamb. I'll get some and bait a few spots and put a camera on each, then plan the shoot around when they show up on the cameras. I don't like the idea of hanging around waiting for hours on end, too boring for me and i'd give up before it was successful.