Wildlife UK Forum - Discuss the UK countryside and wildlife

We all know about how few wildcats are left in Scotland, and now there is another threat to them, diseases carried by cats kept as pets that are highly contagious. Most can be vaccinated against though, so I hope cat owners are responsible enough to go and get the vaccines for their pets.

One thing I don't completely understand is wildcats inhabit such an unpopulated area that there can't be that many domestic cats around can there?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/en...690035.ece

I can't imagine wildcats and domestic cats have much contact either, but if it is highly contagious the virus may linger where a domestic cat has been, and get picked up by a wildcat if it passes through the same area.

I don't know what disease it would be that would get picked up that easily by a wildcat...

Kingfisher

It's always best to be on the safe side with this sort of thing, even though it does seem quite far fetched that a wild cat would pick up the disease. I'm sure that the cat owners would rather their cats be vaccinated anyway, although it depends how much it costs.