This blog provides scientific facts, information and research regarding the growing spread of toxoplasmosis in our communities - and to our children, particularly in unprotected play areas. Over one third of the world's population is infected, and more than 60 million Americans, The US CDC states this "neglected parasite" is the second leading killer of food borne diseases.
TNR for Feral Cats is Horribly Cruel and Only Makes People Feel Better
Feral Cats are Invasive Species
Manqsquan, NJ - -(AmmoLand.com)- There has been much made of the supposed “Positive Results” of Trap Neuter and Release (TNR). What proponents fail to mention is that Feral Cats are not outside pets and suffer horribly from the lack of food, water, shelter and regular medical care while living outside exposed to the elements.
The number of feral cats suffering under the guise of TNR is staggering. It is estimated that the township of Jackson, NJ has 1000+ feral cats, while Point Pleasant Beach NJ Animal Welfare Committee estimates there are some 200 -300 feral cats in Pt Beach, NJ alone.
The popularity of TNR programs has been put forward as an acceptable solution by animal rights extremist organizations.
Under the guidance of radical NO-Kill groups, whose admitted goal is equal rights for animal and humans, they have been promoting TNR as a way to prevent the euthanization of cats and pushing forward their “Feel Good” policy of keeping animals alive at all cost.
US Media Frenzy Over "TO Crazy Cat Lady" Gone Wild It's like the wild west as sales and talk about the "TO Crazy Cat Lady" reach new heights on even top ranked shows over the past week. Here are just a few clips we have received from fans and supporters. Stay tuned - because there is much more coming!
Here are some recent post demonstrating the fun surrounding this truly weird gift idea. What next? Pet rocks anyone?? CNN Breaking News...
The evil horror of 106 Beverley St. the scary famous tourist site is now one of the most popular "weird gifts" selling like snowballs in hell this Christmas Season ! A great stocking stuffer and sure to be a talked-about-collectors piece for many years ahead. Get your own valuable once-in-a-lifetime treasure while quantities last.
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5.75-Inch tall hard vinyl figure
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Comes with the 6 feral cats allowed by Health-Wise Toronto Municipal Code
MORE Laughs Coming Soon - Ward 20 & Trinity-Spadina Political figurines and bubbleheads, made right here in GTA Order early - ( International Ford (2014) Enterprises Inc)
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Now World Famous Toxoplasmosis Tourist Attraction
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Très propre de Toronto - World Famous Madame folle de chat
L'horreur du mal de 106 Beverley St. le célèbre site touristique effrayant, c'est maintenant l'un des "cadeaux bizarres» les plus populaires vendent comme des boules de neige en enfer cette saison de Noël! Un grand cadeau de Noël et bien sûr d'être un morceau pour de nombreuses années à venir parlé-sur-collectionneurs. Créez votre précieux trésor fois-dans-un-vie jusqu'à épuisement des stocks.
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5,75 pouces haute silhouette de vinyle dur
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Tout le plaisir d'avoir la vraie WARD 20 Madame folle de chat sans la toxoplasmose et d'autres maladies
Livré avec les six chats sauvages autorisés par Santé-Wise Toronto Code municipal
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Maintenant activité Toxoplasmose World Famous Tourisme Lors de votre visite suivante à TORONTO Tours gratuit
Scientists have discovered how the toxoplasmosis parasite may trigger the development of schizophrenia and other bipolar disorders.
The team from the University of Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences (UK) has shown that the parasite may play a role in the development of these disorders by affecting the production of dopamine - the chemical that relays messages in the brain controlling aspects of movement, cognition and behaviour.
Toxoplasmosis, which is transmitted via cat faeces (found on unwashed vegetables) and raw or undercooked infected meat, is relatively common, with 10-20% of the UK population and 22% of the US population estimated to carry the parasite as cysts. Most people with the parasite are healthy, but for those who are immune-suppressed - and particularly for pregnant women - there are significant health risks that can occasionally be fatal. Dr Glenn McConkey, lead researcher on the project, says: "Toxoplasmosis changes some of the chemical messages in the brain, and these changes can have an enormous effect on behaviour. Studies have shown there is a direct statistical link between incidences of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis infection and our study is the first step in discovering why there is this link."
The parasite infects the brain by forming a cyst within its cells and produces an enzyme called tyrosine hydroxylase, which is needed to make dopamine. Dopamine's role in mood, sociability, attention, motivation and sleep patterns are well documented and schizophrenia has long been associated with dopamine, which is the target of all schizophrenia drugs on the market.
The team has recently received $250,000 (£160,000) to progress its research from the US-based Stanley Medical Research Institute, which focuses on mental health conditions and has a particular emphasis on bipolar illnesses.
Dr McConkey says: "It's highly unlikely that we will find one definitive trigger for schizophrenia as there are many factors involved, but our studies will provide a clue to how toxoplasmosis infection - which is more common than you might think - can impact on the development of the condition in some individuals.
"In addition, the ability of the parasite to make dopamine implies a potential link with other neurological conditions such as Parkinson's Disease, Tourette's syndrome and attention deficit disorders, says Dr McConkey. "We'd like to extend our research to look at this possibility more closely."
Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia?
NO ONE WOULD accuse Jaroslav Flegr of being a conformist. A self-described “sloppy dresser,” the 53-year-old Czech scientist has the contemplative air of someone habitually lost in thought, and his still-youthful, square-jawed face is framed by frizzy red hair that encircles his head like a ring of fire.
Certainly Flegr’s thinking is jarringly unconventional. Starting in the early 1990s, he began to suspect that a single-celled parasite in the protozoan family was subtly manipulating his personality, causing him to behave in strange, often self-destructive ways. And if it was messing with his mind, he reasoned, it was probably doing the same to others.
The parasite, which is excreted by cats in their feces, is called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii or Toxo for short) and is the microbe that causes toxoplasmosis—the reason pregnant women are told to avoid cats’ litter boxes. Since the 1920s, doctors have recognized that a woman who becomes infected during pregnancy can transmit the disease to the fetus, in some cases resulting in severe brain damage or death. T. gondii is also a major threat to people with weakened immunity: in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, before good antiretroviral drugs were developed, it was to blame for the dementia that afflicted many patients at the disease’s end stage. Healthy children and adults, however, usually experience nothing worse than brief flu-like symptoms before quickly fighting off the protozoan, which thereafter lies dormant inside brain cells—or at least that’s the standard medical wisdom.
But if Flegr is right, the “latent” parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents. And that’s not all. He also believes that the organism contributes to car crashes, suicides, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. When you add up all the different ways it can harm us, says Flegr, “Toxoplasma might even kill as many people as malaria, or at least a million people a year.”
An evolutionary biologist at Charles University in Prague, Flegr has pursued this theory for decades in relative obscurity. Because he struggles with English and is not much of a conversationalist even in his native tongue, he rarely travels to scientific conferences. That “may be one of the reasons my theory is not better known,” he says. And, he believes, his views may invite deep-seated opposition. “There is strong psychological resistance to the possibility that human behavior can be influenced by some stupid parasite,” he says. “Nobody likes to feel like a puppet. Reviewers [of my scientific papers] may have been offended.” Another more obvious reason for resistance, of course, is that Flegr’s notions sound an awful lot like fringe science, right up there with UFO sightings and claims of dolphins telepathically communicating with humans.
But after years of being ignored or discounted, Flegr is starting to gain respectability. Psychedelic as his claims may sound, many researchers, including such big names in neuroscience as Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky, think he could well be onto something. Flegr’s “studies are well conducted, and I can see no reason to doubt them,” Sapolsky tells me. Indeed, recent findings from Sapolsky’s lab and British groups suggest that the parasite is capable of extraordinary shenanigans. T. gondii, reports Sapolsky, can turn a rat’s strong innate aversion to cats into an attraction, luring it into the jaws of its No. 1 predator. Even more amazing is how it does this: the organism rewires circuits in parts of the brain that deal with such primal emotions as fear, anxiety, and sexual arousal. “Overall,” says Sapolsky, “this is wild, bizarre neurobiology.” Another academic heavyweight who takes Flegr seriously is the schizophrenia expert E. Fuller Torrey, director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute, in Maryland. “I admire Jaroslav for doing [this research],” he says. “It’s obviously not politically correct, in the sense that not many labs are doing it. He’s done it mostly on his own, with very little support. I think it bears looking at. I find it completely credible.”
What’s more, many experts think T. gondii may be far from the only microscopic puppeteer capable of pulling our strings. “My guess is that there are scads more examples of this going on in mammals, with parasites we’ve never even heard of,” says Sapolsky.
Familiar to most of us, of course, is the rabies virus. On the verge of killing a dog, bat, or other warm-blooded host, it stirs the animal into a rage while simultaneously migrating from the nervous system to the creature’s saliva, ensuring that when the host bites, the virus will live on in a new carrier. But aside from rabies, stories of parasites commandeering the behavior of large-brained mammals are rare. The far more common victims of parasitic mind control—at least the ones we know about—are fish, crustaceans, and legions of insects, according to Janice Moore, a behavioral biologist at Colorado State University. “Flies, ants, caterpillars, wasps, you name it—there are truckloads of them behaving weirdly as a result of parasites,” she says.
Consider Polysphincta gutfreundi, a parasitic wasp that grabs hold of an orb spider and attaches a tiny egg to its belly. A wormlike larva emerges from the egg, and then releases chemicals that prompt the spider to abandon weaving its familiar spiral web and instead spin its silk thread into a special pattern that will hold the cocoon in which the larva matures. The “possessed” spider even crochets a specific geometric design in the net, camouflaging the cocoon from the wasp’s predators.
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