Kevin D. Lafferty 2015 <p>A recent series of studies on tagged sea otters (<i>Enhydra lutris nereis</i>) challenges the hypothesis that sea otters are sentinels of a dirty ocean, in particular, that pet cats are the main source of exposure to <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> in central California. Counter to expectations, sea otters from unpopulated stretches of coastline are less healthy and more exposed to parasites than city-associated otters. Ironically, now it seems that spillover from wildlife, not pets, dominates spatial patterns of disease transmission.</p> application/pdf 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2015.05.005 en Australian Society for Parasitology Sea otter health: challenging a pet hypothesis article