Research Activities
Ongoing work summary
Sample Collection Kits
Participants in the sample collection scheme complete an online questionnaire about their cats life history and behaviours. Sample collection kits are then sent out, which enable participants to safely submit samples to the project.
Prey Animal Collection
Over 100 prey items have been submitted to the project so far. These include wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus), field voles (Microtus agrestis), common shrews (Sorex araneus) and brown rats (Rattus norvegicus). When samples are received they are identified to species level, weighed, sexed and body length is measured.
Tissue Dissection
The parasites being investigated are able to live in a range of tissue types in the hosts. To investigate this further and to maximise the chances of detecting infection we are dissecting specimens to isolate tissue from the brain, liver, lungs and leg muscle.
What next?
In the laboratory part of the work will include DNA being extracted from tissue samples, and a process called PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) will be used to amplify any parasite DNA to detectable levels. This will enable us to accurately and sensitively identify any infected animals from the sample group.