Can cats carry infectious diseases to the owners?

I have always owned cats (right now I have 4) and I have never had any health problems.

This is what the experts say: Some cat-related diseases that make people sick are common, such as cat scratch disease (or cat scratch fever), and others such as plague (play-g), are rare. Toxoplasmosis (TOX-o-plaz-MO-sis) is a disease that can come from cats, but people are more likely to get it from eating raw meat or from gardening. Cats can also carry rabies, a deadly viral disease. http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/animals/c...

If your cat has fleas: Fleas transmit diseases such as plague, typhus, and tularemia to humans. The plague or black death is still found in some western states where rodent populations serve as a reservoir for the disease organisms and where several flea species serve as vectors of the disease to people and pets. http://www.budgetpestcontrol.com/fleas_a...

If your cat has ticks: Besides their repulsive appearance, ticks are vectors of potentially debilitating and life-threatening diseases. Lyme disease, in particular, has attracted national attention and is now the number one arthropod-borne disease in the United States. Rocky Mountain spotted fever has not received the media attention of Lyme disease, but is potentially more deadly. http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfact...

HELL OH NO!!!! I HAVE 27 CATS, FOR 5 YEARS AND I AM UP AND STRONG

YES!!!

Toxoplasma is a one-celled parasite whose primary host is the cat family. Infected cats usually have no symptoms, but may shed as many as 10 million egg-cysts in their feces each day for the three weeks that their acute infection lasts. After excretion, it can take from 1 to 21 days for the egg-cysts to ripen and become infectious (usually 2-8 days). The egg-cysts can survive for more than a year in moist soil. They are 0.0005 inches long, invisible to the naked eye.

If you get the microscopic egg-cysts on your hands, you can become infected by eating food you have handled. Inhalation of the cysts can also cause infection. Flies have been shown to aid the transmission of toxoplasmosis. Egg-cysts get on their feet and are deposited when they land on food. Directly changing the kitty litter accounts for many cases of human toxoplasmosis. There is a tiny risk from petting cats.

Other animals also get toxoplasmosis, including cows, pigs, chickens, and goats. Although they appear well, infectious tissue-cysts get in their muscles and milk. Outbreaks have been linked to consuming raw goat's milk or undercooked meat. One study in Palo Alto, California showed cysts present in up to one third of pork chops. The cysts can survive for months at refrigeration temperatures. They are destroyed by cooking to 150 degrees.