05-20-2016, 03:21 PM
(05-20-2016, 01:33 PM)Brownshoe Wrote: You're just being nit picky with the word "want". Obviously toxoplasmosis isn't intelligent, but it's nature is to screw with the rats brain and make it attracted to cat urine; since cats are the only place where toxoplasmosis can reproduce.
Well I'm not certain that the rats are sexually attracted to cat urine, but it DOES activate the part of the rats brain that normally triggers a mating response when they meet a female rat when it smells it. Or at least that's what Stanford University says.
One man's nit picky is another man's accuracy. Cats are not the only place Toxoplasma gondii can reproduce as it has two distinct life cycles one of which is asexual. The asexual life forms can reproduce in secondary hosts and in turn infect other hosts.
It can affect a wide variety of organs which is why it can cause a wide variety of symptoms not just the the brain. According to Medscape only 10-20% of cases are symptomatic and don't require any sort of treatment. Most people don't even know the are infected. The seropositivity rate is reported between 10-15% for the U.S., 75% in France, and 50% in Germany. If you visit Paris you might consider eating MREs as their rate is reported as 90% and eating contaminated food is only one way to become infected.
