Tracy Miller, New York Daily News: “Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis, can cause health problems in anyone, not just pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems, researchers warn in a newly published paper.” READ THE REST
Ah, the NY Daily News - my go-to resource for undated, unsourced science-like material.
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Some small balm for hypochondriacs who are immediately checking themselves for symptoms:
“only 1% of cats are thought to be infected with T. gondii at any given time”
and
“Indoor-only cats are far less likely carry the parasite,”
and
“It’s a good idea to scoop cat litterboxes daily, as T. gondii does not become infectious until one to five days after it is shed in feces, according to the CDC.”
So if you have indoor-only cats and your litter-boxes aren’t featured in an episode of Hoarders, you may be ok.
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Love the last sentence or so. Takes the idea of a raw food diet for your pets right off the table. Oh, well, I guess I’ll go back to feeding the dog and cat a huge bag of melamine kibble.
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As a dog owner I’d have cause to be smug about this, but Kira (like many dogs) really, really, really likes the taste of cat shit and goes out of her way to dig it up from under bushes and playground bark-chip.
Unless canine digestive tracts are really acidic or something, I imagine she’d at least pass the live parasites through. I do my bit for neighborhood hygiene by bagging her own crap, so the woims wouldn’t get any farther than that.
The NY Daily News is probably best used to line bird cages(assuming that there isn’t some ghastly parrot parasite we don’t know about), and the habit of writing about a document without linking to it(even in the online version of the story, FFS!) is one that makes me want to set most news organizations on fire; but the paper isn’t hard to find with the information provided in the article…
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Some years back, my late beloved cat Mister Fluffy Cheeks bit my thumb right down to the bone (in completely understandable circumstances.) I was horrified when I went to Urgent Care and the doctor told me that cats have much dirtier mouths than dogs. It’s just WRONG.
I have a cousin who got
Didn’t Piers Anthony have that? That would explain a few things.
Nah, I think he had douchebag “journalist” who had to flee his home country fever.
Especially underappreciated by cats.
Here is a longer and somewhat less silly article. This one is too silly; it may be bad for your health.
Given that Mr. Torrey’s work relating to toxoplasmosis is mostly centered around its correlation with schizophrenia, I’d be really surprised if he actually spent a whole interview talking about meaningless poop-safety procedures. Unless you never leave your house, you’re at risk of contracting toxoplasmosis.
And if you do get it, you’ll probably be fine if you’re not a fetus, a baby, or suffering from a compromised immune system. People in the latter situation are more likely to be incapacitated by a more common illness, like flu; and actually, a lot of the fetii and babies are also fine.
Concluding paragraph: This is a silly article.
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