I’m confident enough in my abilities to know what you’re saying. What is this clickbaity nonsense? Well, my friends, buckle up. Let me share with you the thing I constantly keep in my back pocket to penalize people for letting lulls in conversation fall upon my shoulders.
Have all of you had your coffee? Great. The normal life cycle of this parasite, starting from an arbitrary point:
- Toxoplasmosis spores get inhaled by the host organism (rat)
- Toxo migrates to the host brain
- Toxo settles in a particular spot and then influences the host to seek out cat urine (something a rat would normally avoid, for obvious reasons)
- The host gets eaten by a cat
- Toxo survives digestion to frolic in the intestines
- If the cat has eaten other hosts, Toxo meets up with others and sexually reproduces, forming spores
- Spores get excreted in the cat’s poop to start the cycle anew after being inhaled by a new host
Why should you care?
11% of the US population over six years of age has toxo in their brain. This can be as high as 60% in some parts of the world. And once it gets in there, it can also influence human behavior.
If you have a cat and handle their litter, you are at high risk of aerosolizing and inhaling spores. This is why we tell pregnant women not to change kitty litter because the infection can travel to the developing fetal brain.
If you are planning on acquiring a cat
Mitigation strategies:
- Use a covered, automatic kitty litter sifter #notSponsored #couldBeSponsoredWinkWink
- Wear an N95 mask while working with kitty litter
- Send one of the more disposable humans inside your household to perform the task
If you have had a cat for some time
- Welcome to the horde
- Your overlords demand cuddles
- What are you talking about? I don’t smell anything
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