Toxoplasma Gondii

• Group: Apicomplexan

Perhaps the most notable of all body-snatching parasites, the Toxoplasma Gondii is a well-known brain parasite mostly found in rats. Once a rat is infected by this parasite, it is capable of manipulating and forcing the rat to do whatever it wants. In fact, many are trying to move around to different hosts. As a result, it will push for the rat to be seen by other animals. In particular, its most notable enemy, the house cat. Thus, the rat will go literally right at the cat rather than running away as it normally would. In fact, in one study, it was found that infected rats seem to be attracted to the smell of cats overall, but in particular their urine.

Now that the rat is more often than not killed by the cat, the parasite will now move inside the cat. This gives the parasite the proper room it needs to breed and further expand. There are quite a few cases of humans getting this parasite inside of them too. It is quite likely that they might have gotten it from their own cat. It is estimated that at least 60 million Americans have come in contact with Toxoplasma Gondii. That is pretty significant when you think about how hard it is for humans to randomly get parasites. At least those of us who understand hygiene. In humans, it could likely affect our brains and heavily reproduce if we do not kill it soon.