Do Cats Carry Ticks? Lyme Disease Risk for Pet Owners
Cats can carry ticks infected with Lyme disease and other pathogens into the home—often without obvious signs.
Cats and tick-borne diseases are an underrecognized concern. In a study by Shannon and colleagues, 160 ticks and blood samples were collected from 70 healthy cats brought to a veterinary hospital in Maryland.
The authors identified three tick species on these cats:
- 83 Lone Star ticks (Amblyomma americanum)
- 7 American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis)
- 70 black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis)
Infected Ticks Found on Cats
Of the 160 ticks collected, 22 (13.8%) tested positive by PCR for pathogens including Bartonella spp., Borrelia burgdorferi, and Borrelia miyamotoi.
Although only 25 of the 70 cats were fully tested, 9 (36%) showed exposure to at least one tick-borne pathogen, including:
- Borrelia burgdorferi
- Ehrlichia ewingii
- Anaplasma phagocytophilum
- Borrelia miyamotoi
- Bartonella clarridgeiae
- Bartonella henselae
“We also found at least one cat blood sample to test positive for antibodies to each of the four tick-borne agents we screened for,” the authors state.
What This Means for Pet Owners
The risk of transmission from pets to humans remains unclear. “Pet ownership has been implicated in vector-borne pathogen transmission and has been identified as a potential risk factor in some studies, but not others,” the authors note.
However, pets may act as sentinels—providing early warning of tick-borne disease exposure in the household.
Screening pets for ticks may help identify risks, especially when uncommon or unexpected pathogens are detected.
Learn more about Lyme disease prevention and how tick exposure occurs in everyday environments.
Clinical Perspective
Even healthy-appearing pets can carry infected ticks, increasing the potential for human exposure.
Keeping cats indoors and regularly checking pets for ticks may reduce this risk.
Author’s note: Keeping your cat indoors can help prevent it from picking up ticks that could be brought into the home.
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References:
- Shannon AB, Rucinsky R, Gaff HD, Brinkerhoff RJ. Borrelia miyamotoi, Other Vector-Borne Agents in Cat Blood and Ticks in Eastern Maryland. EcoHealth. 2017.
Dr. Daniel Cameron, MD, MPH
Lyme disease clinician with over 30 years of experience and past president of ILADS.
Symptoms • Testing • Coinfections • Recovery • Pediatric • Prevention
How much to test your cat & find out if the feline is a carrier; and how much to eradicate the problem? This sounds like a very expensive shot in the dark!
I wrote the Lyme disease science blog to highlight the potential exposure to cats. I am not sure testing the cat has been looked at.
I agree that people need to be responsible for their pets and keep them indoors and take them to the vet at least twice a year make sure that they are dewormed and have appropriate flea medication and stuff like that but if you can find a decent veterinarian who in my opinion know a lot more about these things than most regular doctors, and you can keep your pet inside well if you have a cat, then the risk is not nearly as great as if you let your cat go outside come back in
The present study indicates that veterinary practices were able to find fleas in a quarter of cats and one sixth of the dogs examined during the study period and the flea samples were found to be positive for a range of infectious agents; in particular the study highlights the relatively high prevalence of Bartonella spp., particularly in central and southern areas, which is of concern for both animal welfare and human health. The study highlights the ongoing need to educate pet owners about the effects of both flea infestation but also the pathogen risks these fleas present.
Recent paper from UK
https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-019-3326-x?fbclid=IwAR2qrS7f02AcysO5ElMGJT02y9C0gNTTxpkga9egpGKDFF1N9mT7B0JmV6k
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