Case in point is Hawaii; attempts to bring the wild cat populations under control are immediately met with resistance from animal rights groups. This is in spite of the ongoing destruction to wild bird populations. One also has to be extremely careful about washing local vegetables, due to cats spreading toxoplasma.
It's very frustrating, folks can't acknowledge that 'cute and familiar' is causing enourmous ecological harm because it's out of sight, out of mind.
I found this link interesting. The cat tracker images showing where a cat has actually gone in the course of a week are amazing.
That TheOatmeal comic always comes to mind.
It's the same same story in Australia. I had multiple vocally Green neighbors in a vocally Green suburb of Melbourne who let their cats have free rein. The mutilated bird carcasses that littered the area were testament to that misguided liberty. Around election time the Greens mailers even included "protecting our pets" as one of its platform items, while at the same time advising voters to rank parties with actual environmental policies, such as the socialists, nearly last.
It might be a contributor to depression. What we do know is that it correlates positively with motorcycle deaths and risk taking behaviors [1]. Postmortem tests show this. (My old immunology professor used to say that toxoplasma indirectly leads to more organ donation.)
Keep your cats indoors. Or get a dog instead.
Toxo evolved to fuck with mice brains and make them not fear being eaten. Your brain operates on similar biochemistry.
Be careful.
[1] Not a direct citation, but similar claims : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC117239/
If this is the case, that's half the population, and if above is true, why isn't "everyone" sounding the alarm?
I have a few family members with cats, so i could pretty well have it.
Doesn't sound like "avoiding" is in any way an option looking at the stats.
The point being we don't really know the consequences, and it's probably a good idea to study this some more.
If this month, 2000 extra people die from Y, it's a huge story and everyone jumps on finding a solution.
But if 2000 people have been dying per month from X for decades, no shits are given, it's just part of the background.
You should see the rates in France.
Many historians say it had a role to play in the downfall of Rome.
Toxo is a perfect example. Chicken pocks is another. HPV a third.
Personally I believe "alergies" are actually the result of a viral infection probably from the common cold, that sets off a long term hyper reaction to airborn particles and pathogens. So things like pollen in the air sets off a huge response whereas for some people who never were infected with the virus, they don't get "alergies".
However, I’m not sure I agree with that allergy hypothesis. The histamine reaction is associated with IgE. This immunoglobulin is associated with parasitic response. A lack of childhood exposure actually higher correlates with higher incidence of allergies and asthma. The theory that has developed from this is that lack of stimulation leads to hyper reaction later when exposed to allergens.
This is all posited by the “hygiene hypothesis”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis
There is a lot of supporting evidence to go along with it. As well as studies inspecting the impact of gut micro biome.
Many opinions by supposed experts turn out later to be completely wrong. Trusting your own experience is usually wise.
Personally I've had countless colds and even the flu a few times, and no allergies. In fact, most people I know get a few colds every year and have no allergies. Actually, basically everybody I've ever met has had the common cold at some point. Maybe it's responsible for everything.
Definitely still a global threat in 2021, but not the disease that most people have on the brain right now. (Unless they own a cat.)
I see what you did there...
Cats can catch SARS-CoV-2 from cats.
It's reasonable to think we can catch it back (This has happened with minks)
As the human population gets vaccinated it will be interesting to see what happens with cats.
https://www.fda.gov/food/people-risk-foodborne-illness/toxop...
I remember a prior study said about 30% of beef and 24% of venison would test positive, but don't see it now. Also, that's just a positive test number. Transmission numbers could be lower, but likely rise over time with repeated consumption.
Conclusion by the authors: the amount of toxoplasmic agents appeared to be related to the degree of deterioration of the immune status.
> Neuropathological studies in the brains of AIDS patients with opportunistic diseases: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8518200/
There was a profile on him in the Atlantic in 2012 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-you...
Also, in this article https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11... he says that "pathogen responsible for mood disorders in animals-injured subjects is probably not the protozoon Toxoplasma gondii but another organism; possibly the agent of cat-scratched disease – the bacteria Bartonella henselae." So did he discover yet another behaviour change inducing organism, or is he simply a shitty scientist? Let's have a look: he recruits respondents via Facebook, they take 4 psychological questionnaires (which are usually not very reliable and shouldn't be used in giant correlation tables) and finds effect sizes ranging from eta2 = 0.004 to eta2 = 0.045. Just look at this table - https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11... - results are significant because the sample size is 5000, but what are the practical differences? Barely 1 point on a scale that itself has reliability around 0.9 (which is good, but it still leads to standard measurement error greater than Flegr's effect sizes).
But good luck getting the NIH/CDC to mention that drug name right now.
