Beware of cats

[FarCenter]

Common brain parasite 'can affect host's actions'

Boffins here in Blighty say that a brain parasite which is carried by up to 20 per cent of the population is capable of affecting its host's actions for its own benefit – but against the interests of the host.

The parasite in question, Toxoplasma gondii, has now been found to "directly affect" the production of dopamine, a key chemical messenger in the human brain. Dopamine levels are implicated in human illnesses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia.

Toxoplasma gondii's primary host organism is cats, but it can also live in other creatures including humans and rats. Humans are infected with it by eating unwashed vegetables with cat poo on them: it's estimated that between 10 and 20 per cent of Brits carry the protozoan parasite and perhaps 22 per cent of Americans. Normally the hidden brain invader appears to have little effect on a human host, though it can kill in certain cases – for instance in the case of someone whose immune system isn't working.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/07/brain_manipulating_parasite/

From the paper The Neurotropic Parasite Toxoplasma Gondii Increases Dopamine Metabolism

Several studies have suggested that T. gondii infection in humans can have serious neurological effects <10>. Associations have been identified between T. gondii seroprevalence and schizophrenia <11>–<13>. The schizophrenia-associated risk factors of T. gondii infection have been found to be greater than the risk factors associated with an individual's genes and with other environmental factors <13>, <14>. Schizophrenia affects approximately 1% of the adult population and in most cases is a lifelong disease with exacerbations. Although schizophrenia is a multifactorial disease, pharmacological and genetic evidence suggest that dysregulation of dopamine metabolism is involved in schizophrenia <15>, <16>.

Paper is free on PLoS ONE at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0023866#aff1

[Cirque du So-What]

1. It would seem to me that the obvious solution

is to *not* eat food with cat poo on it. Whenever possible, I avoid eating anything with poo from any animal on it; I'm just funny that way.

[FarCenter]

2. Kitty walks in the litter box; kitty walks on the kitchen counter; ...

[Cirque du So-What]

4. Already taken into account

Food that I eat doesn't make direct contact with the kitchen counter. I'm funny that way too.

[joeybee12]

13. That's the one place my cats are forbidden...kitchen counter...nt

[Lance_Boyle]

24. Does kitty ever give you 'kisses?'

Because they all lick their assholes. Avoid toxo from cats is not as easy as you seem to think it is.

[Horse with no Name]

19. I don't prepare food directly on my counter

because my cat is old and cranky and he has no manners.

I keep a stack of cutting boards underneath the cabinet and pull one out everytime I prepare food.

It's the simple things...:)

[TwilightGardener]

25. Yep--nobody with a cat can say for sure that the cat is never on the counter

or table. I never put food directly on the counter, either--always plates or cutting boards.

[LiberalEsto]

9. in that case

stay out of OliveGarden...

[Cirque du So-What]

20. Not a prob

Besides the RW contributions on the part of Olive Garden's corporate overseers, I don't like faux-Italian food. As Henry Hill said, 'noodles & ketchup.' I can get the real deal - for a similar price - less than a mile from where I live.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. Damn! Ron Burgundy is so dead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m1hTLZNVbU

[valerief]

6. Blech! Blech!

:rofl:
:puke:
:rofl:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

7. Sorry.

:evilgrin:






.

[valerief]

14. I guess I'm not German enough. nt

[Mac1949]

5. I love cats. We have four. But I wash all fruits and veg before

eating (not really because of the cats. More because of pesticides), as well as wiping down the counter and cutting boards before preparing food. Also, with patience cats can be trained to stay off certain surfaces. With a little basic hygiene, this seems rather a non-issue to me. :shrug:

[libodem]

15. You didn't know my cat Bob

[kestrel91316]

8. Yes, this is all true about Toxoplasma. But before people get all in a panic,

it is NOTHING NEW. This bug has been with us since we domesticated cats, or perhaps before. And normal, healthy humans have little if anything to fear from it.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/

Read all you want. Just remember to wash your hands before handling food, and if you are pregnant or immunosuppressed, avoid incompletely cooked meats, keep cats indoors, and don't feed THEM incompletely cooked meats either.

[Liberal Veteran]

10. As an immunocompromised person, I can vouch that ads3ew - must feed cat now.

j/k :) I have 5 cats and have had cats for many years including when I was diagnosed as basically having advanced HIV disease (22 t-cells at the time).

Proper hygiene and food handling makes all the difference.

[redqueen]

12. I thought they also recommended that pregnant women

not clean cat litter boxes. This was a while ago now, though, so things may have changed.

[kestrel91316]

26. Pregnant women CAN clean litter boxes. Need to clean DAILY so poop

doesn't become infectious, and wear mask/gloves.

[REP]

34. I'm immunocompromised ... I'm supposed to avoid kids, but not cats

Toxoplasmosis is waaaaay down on the list of things my doctors worry about my exposure to.

[Arugula Latte]

11. Fearmongering. All sorts of creatures and things carry all sorts of germs, bacteria, and parasites.

Practice good hygiene and use common sense.

Plus, kitties are worth any risk. :loveya:

[snot]

16. Look, your cat licks its butt, then licks elsewhere. You pet your cat elsewhere, then

bite into that apple.

Your cat walks across your desk. You eat at your desk.

You sit on the couch near where you cat had been lying, and your hand touches that area. You dig into the popcorn.

Maybe the odds of such indirect transmission are small; but if you live with a cat, incidents like this happen almost constantly, for years.

What we need is a cure.

[Systematic Chaos]

18. I think the cure is to not haz a dumb and to brain on a regular basis.

:shrug:

[KamaAina]

17. Blatant pro-dog propaganda

typical M$M. :P

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

30. Beat me to it. nt

[L0oniX]

21. Fat cats on Wallstreet are also affected?

[cyrakitty]

22. Toxoplasmosis

is mostly a concern for pregnant women (I studied vet tech med and this is what we were taught). And you mostly get it from cleaning the litter box and then not washing your hands. And quite frankly if you are dumb enough to do this it is probably best that you don't reproduce in the first place.

:evilgrin:

[rusty fender]

31. What does it do to the cats?

I have 5 cats and I be :scared: for them.

[cyrakitty]

33. Don't worry too much

Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite but it rarely causes significant clinical disease in cats-or any species. Cats get the parasite when it ingests an infected prey (or other infected raw meat) then the parasite is released into the cat's digestive tract where it lays eggs. Cats are the only host that allows the parasite to lay eggs. Also, if you clean the litter box daily you will never experience a problem. The reason being that the eggs passed in a cat's feces are not immediately infectious to other animals. They must first go through a process called sporulation, which takes one to five days depending on environmental conditions.

Most cats infected with the parasite will not show any symptoms. Occasionally, however, clinical disease-toxoplasmosis-occurs. When disease does occur, it may develop when the cat's immune response is not adequate to stop the spread. The disease is more likely to occur in cats with suppressed immune systems, including young kittens and cats with feline leukemia virus (FELV) or feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV).

So all in all, if you have a healthy indoor only cat and you clean the box daily - this will never be an issue. Please do not let your cats outside where they are exposed to diseases or diseased prey.

Hope this helped put you at ease. Much love and kindness!!

O8)

[Ikonoklast]

23. We get it, cats are Agents of Evil.

I have a higher risk of catching something from an unsanitary human than I do from one of my kitties.

Just watch how many humans leave a restroom without washing their hands.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

27. Brought to you by the

Dog Lobby. :evilgrin:

[Brigid]

32. There have been studies about this.

And the results ain't pretty. x(

[Enrique]

28. Ted Nugent discovered this disease in 1977 n/t

[librechik]

29. 22% carry in US----that's how many admit to supporting the Tea Party!

just a coincidence I'm sure.

[Withywindle]

36. But they're not the same people.

All the cat people I know are lefties. The Lounge right here at DU is a virtual Temple of Bast.

[DirkGently]

35. 'can affect host's actions' is the interesting part. Rats lose their fear of the smell of cat urine.

... thus making them easier prey for cats and continuing the parasitic cycle.

The fringe hypothesis is speculation as to whether "Crazy Cat Lady" syndrome is related somehow.

Might Toxo explain why some humans develop an unhealthful attraction to cats and apparently become immune to the smell of their urine? And might that explain the mystery of crazy cat ladies?

“That idea doesn’t seem completely crazy,” Sapolsky says. “But there’s no data supporting it.”

Not yet. But Jaroslav Flegr, an evolutionary biologist at Charles University in the Czech Republic, is looking into it. He has spent years studying Toxo’s impact on human behavior. (He found, for example, that people infected with Toxo have slower reflexes and are 2.5 times as likely to get into car accidents.) He won’t have results of his study for a while and refuses to speculate. But Joanne Webster says the connection isn’t much of a stretch: “In our evolutionary past, perhaps we were eaten by cats, too,” she says.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_10_catcoat.html

Live with a million cats. Lose your aversion to cat pee AND your coordination. Expire alone amongst the feline hordes. Become kitty snack.

(Insert maniacal kitteh laughter here)

[Behind the Aegis]

37. Be afeered!!!

YO!