© Anders AnderssonTwo billion people are infected with the Toxoplasma Gondi parasite, most commonly contracted from cats.
Except for a couple of specific circumstances - notably pregnancy - the
world's most common parasite in humans,
Toxoplasma gondii, is thought to induce few symptoms and no serious effects.
However, research from 32 scientists at 16 institutions, linking parasite proteins with small non-coding human RNA molecules known as microRNA, and comparing outcomes for
various diseases between infected and non-infected people, suggests we have severely underestimated the situation.The research,
published in the journal Scientific Reports, implicates
T. gondii in the progress of neurodegenerative diseases, epilepsy, and certain cancers.
Around the world, more than two billion people carry the parasite. The most common route of infection involves one of its primary reservoirs, the domestic cat. Parasite eggs find their way into humans - and many other animals - via contact with cat faeces.
Such contact does not need to be direct.
T. gondii eggs are extremely resilient and can survive dormant for many months in open environments - these frequently include vegetable patches and fields, where cats may defecate into the soil, from which the eggs are transferred to harvested plants.
The parasite, once hatched, lodges in the brain.
Comment: Another source identified the species as a Risso's dolphin.