t. gondii is one of the most common parasitic infections in humans, not the most common human disease.
there are typically no symptoms, but when the symptoms do show up in humans, they’re along the lines of swollen lymph nodes.
there’s no credible evidence of it resulting in humans changing their behaviour towards cats, which makes sense, since we’re a biological dead-end for toxoplasmosis. there’d be no benefit for the parasite to change our behaviour.
If it made us like cats more there would be a higher chance of cats becoming more prevalent, which would be good for the parasite yes? So there could be some evolutionary pressure there. Not that I’m saying it has actually happened, but theoretically it might be advantageous.
the most common human disease.
In the US basically everyone has it because of pork.
It has this fascinating life cycle, but industrialized farming and food safety kinda makes it moot.
it’s basically pork herpes
t. gondii is one of the most common parasitic infections in humans, not the most common human disease.
there are typically no symptoms, but when the symptoms do show up in humans, they’re along the lines of swollen lymph nodes.
there’s no credible evidence of it resulting in humans changing their behaviour towards cats, which makes sense, since we’re a biological dead-end for toxoplasmosis. there’d be no benefit for the parasite to change our behaviour.
If it made us like cats more there would be a higher chance of cats becoming more prevalent, which would be good for the parasite yes? So there could be some evolutionary pressure there. Not that I’m saying it has actually happened, but theoretically it might be advantageous.