Why do cats love to eat mice? Will they get sick if they eat mice? If they get sick, can they infect humans?

Why do cats catch mice? Is it for fun? Of course not. If so, it would be too much of a bully for the mice.

Essentially speaking, cats catch mice to eat them, and the reason why we see domestic cats catching mice but only playing with them but not eating them is because domestic cats themselves have no shortage of food. So, the question is, why do cats have to catch mice to eat? Cats are well-deserved hunting experts, and their nerve reflexes are very fast. As long as they want, any animal smaller than themselves can become their prey, from flying birds to grass snakes. Of course, cats occasionally hunt other animals, but their main meal has always been mice. What kind of deep hatred has made cats and mice mortal enemies for thousands of years? There are indeed some reasons why cats eat mice, and that reason is "taurine". Taurine is a simple sulfur-containing amino acid in animals, and it is also an essential amino acid for the human body.

Taurine is an essential amino acid for the human body, especially for pregnant women, because taurine is directly related to the development of the fetus's nervous system.

Taurine is very important to humans, and even more important to cats. If you see a cat at night, the most eye-catching part must be its shining eyes. It is because of these eyes that cats can stare at their prey in the dark, and these bright eyes are thanks to taurine. Not only that, the brain development and internal organ development of cats are closely related to taurine. If cats lack taurine in their bodies, it will cause a series of problems, such as retinal degeneration, internal organ lesions, loss of fertility, etc.

Since taurine is so important to cats, we must find a way to supplement taurine. It happens that one animal is rich in taurine, and that is mice. For cats, mice are a natural taurine storage tank, so they naturally have to eat them.

So the question is, how do cats know that mice have taurine? This is indeed a mystery, and this mystery is not limited to cats and mice. The food eaten by any animal contains the nutrients that the animal needs. How do these animals know that they should eat these foods? It is still difficult to explain. Maybe a food contains the nutrients you need, so it has the taste you like. Cats eat mice to supplement nutrition, but mice are not clean animals. We dislike mice because mice usually carry a variety of germs. So why don’t cats get sick after eating mice?

Rats can indeed carry a variety of pathogens, but the one we fear most is the plague bacteria, also known as Yersinia.

Yersinia parasites live in rats, but rats do not transmit the bacteria directly to humans. The plague bacteria need fleas as a medium to infect humans. Fleas that suck the blood of infected rats and then bite humans will transmit the bacteria to humans. At this time, the plague that humans are infected with is called "bubonic plague". The mortality rate of bubonic plague is 50%, and it cannot be transmitted from person to person. If the condition of patients with bubonic plague continues to not be alleviated, the bacteria will enter the lungs and develop into "pneumonic plague". The mortality rate of pneumonic plague is close to 100%, and it can be transmitted through droplets. If the bacteria enter the blood, it will develop into "septicemic plague", commonly known as the "Black Death", which is impossible to cure.

The plague virus is initially transmitted from rats to humans through fleas, but when cats eat rats, they directly ingest the plague virus, so cats can also be infected with the plague.

However, for strong domestic cats, the body's immunity is usually able to kill the plague bacteria, and then produce permanent antibodies, so they will no longer be afraid of the plague virus. However, this is only for domestic cats and strong wild cats, while stray cats in the city are another matter. Stray cats lack the necessary survival skills and it is difficult to find drinking water in winter, so their bodies are usually weak. Weak bodies have low immunity, so it is difficult to recover after being infected with the plague virus, so stray cats often die from plague infection.

So if a cat is infected with plague, can it transmit the plague bacteria to humans?

This needs to be discussed separately. If a domestic cat is infected with plague bacteria, it will generally not be transmitted to humans. This is just like mice cannot directly transmit plague bacteria to humans. If a cat infected with plague wants to transmit the bacteria to humans, it also needs fleas as a medium. Domestic cats usually pay more attention to hygiene and do not have fleas on their bodies, so they will not transmit the bacteria to humans. But if it is a stray cat, it is a different story. Stray cats themselves are a "high-risk cat group" infected with plague. Because of poor hygiene conditions, it is normal for fleas to appear on their bodies. Therefore, a cat infected with plague is the same as a mouse infected with plague. They both pose a potential threat to humans.

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