Will I get ecoli infection?

No, not unless the cat has eaten at Chipotle grill recently. Ecoli populates on the leaves of vegetables mostly, sometimes tomatoes which is technically a fruit. Spinach is often a culprit. Organic farming hasn't done the world many favors.

Let me clear up some myths about e. (escherichia) coli:

e. coli is a bacterium that lives in the intestines of every mammal (cats, humans, bonobos) on this planet.

A bacterium is a one-cell organism, but it's alive. ALIVE! It's ALIVE!

And, guess what? We even need it to survive.

And together with its one hundred thousand comrades, it lives within us and helps us (with the others - thanks comrades!) digest our food.

Now the point is, cats don't have special e.coli. They usually have those acquired from their mother and from local humans.

There ARE different strains of e.coli; these are those who can cause "Montezuma's" or "Shiva's" revenge, until your body has adapted to them, usually within two or three weeks in Cuzco or Mumbai. And you can't avoid it.

But as to cats, they usually don't travel that far. So THEIR e.coli are YOUR e.coli, basically.

So a cat cannot infect you with anything you haven't had before. (There are diseases specific to cats, but they are not transferable to humans.)

not a yes or no answer, a question of probability, and that depends on circumstances. was the paw covered in crap? A paw covered in oozing poop will be far more likely to give you an infection than one recently cleaned by the cat.

You keep asking this question, don't you.

The answer is that there is a very low probability unless you have a compromised immune system.

Most likely you won't.

No, of course not, does your cat have e coli?

probably not.