t. gondii is one of the most common parasitic infections in humans, not the most common human disease.
there are typically no symptoms, but when the symptoms do show up in humans, they’re along the lines of swollen lymph nodes.
there’s no credible evidence of it resulting in humans changing their behaviour towards cats, which makes sense, since we’re a biological dead-end for toxoplasmosis. there’d be no benefit for the parasite to change our behaviour.
If it made us like cats more there would be a higher chance of cats becoming more prevalent, which would be good for the parasite yes? So there could be some evolutionary pressure there. Not that I’m saying it has actually happened, but theoretically it might be advantageous.
evolutionary pressure happens over generations and via sexual reproduction, as far as i’m aware. humans are a biological dead-end for toxoplasma, there’s no way for t gondii to “learn” that there’d be any benefit to changing human behaviour, let alone how to do so.
t. gondii is one of the most common parasitic infections in humans, not the most common human disease.
there are typically no symptoms, but when the symptoms do show up in humans, they’re along the lines of swollen lymph nodes.
there’s no credible evidence of it resulting in humans changing their behaviour towards cats, which makes sense, since we’re a biological dead-end for toxoplasmosis. there’d be no benefit for the parasite to change our behaviour.
If it made us like cats more there would be a higher chance of cats becoming more prevalent, which would be good for the parasite yes? So there could be some evolutionary pressure there. Not that I’m saying it has actually happened, but theoretically it might be advantageous.
evolutionary pressure happens over generations and via sexual reproduction, as far as i’m aware. humans are a biological dead-end for toxoplasma, there’s no way for t gondii to “learn” that there’d be any benefit to changing human behaviour, let alone how to do so.