VETERINARY RESEARCH STUDENTS AT THE CAMP
Three veterinary students from Sweden visited Karen Blixen Camp to study the domestic cats in the Mara North Conservancy Area as a school project. Ronja, Elin and Emilia interviewed the locals about the cats’ role in the community, how they are taken care of and collected information of where the cats lived within the communities.
Domestic cats serve as rodent controllers and pets in many countries around the world. But did you know the cat is also an invasive species that can act as predators to many small animals and transmit diseases? If the cat population gets too big, the risk of transmitting diseases and their impact to the ecosystem is increased. The students therefore, in addition to the research also neutered some of the cats to control the population size.
In this project they focused on six of the diseases that cats could carry and transmit to humans or other animals. To investigate the diseases the three students collected blood samples from cats in the surrounding area of Mararianta.
This was the first study of cats within the community and hopefully this will turn into a yearly project with further research. The research will help make more informed decision about how to manage the cat population in the area.