I can picture couples in China eating cat feces after reading this.
"Drat! My Plans have been uncovered!" [/T. gondii]
Here's a "WTF?" moment.
There are some fascinating examples of sex-ration distortion among insects caused by bacteria. However, these are biased towards females because only the female offspring are able to transmit the bacteria to their offspring, so males are a dead end and a waste of resources for the bacteria. A sex-ratio biased towards males suggests that this is an accidental side-effect that is not beneficial to the bacteria's survival.
If this is true, look for women in China to start eating cat feces or doimg whatever they can to get infected with this.
Wow, gives a whole new meaning to Viking kittens.
Not all cats have this, and indoor cats are very unlikely to ever get it.
ONLY cats who happen to eat an infected animal will carry the parasite.
"Up to 45% of American women between the ages of 20 and 39 have already been exposed to Toxoplasma and are therefore immune. But in mothers who first acquire Toxoplasma infection during their pregnancy, about one-third to one-half of their infants born to mothers are also infected. Toxoplasma infection of the fetus is least common, but the disease is most severe, if the mother has been infected during the first trimester of pregnancy. Toxoplasma infection is most common, but the disease is least severe or without symptoms, if the infection occurs during the third trimester. Most women infected during pregnancy have no
symptoms of the infection themselves, but there is about a 40% chance that the fetus will acquire the infection, and be born prematurely or even stillborn. In about 10% of these cases, severe neurological or eye disease will result. Toxoplasma infection results in over three thousand human congenital infections annually in the United States, most of them with no symptoms. In symptomatic individuals, symptoms may appear at different times: at birth, or weeks, months, or even years later."
http://mt.essortment.com/whatistoxoplas_rhjv.htm
I seem to remember from nursing school that over all more boys are born but they don't survive the first year as well.
My son is visiting us from New York and has been describing to us a cat named Neiko there who actually has his own toothbrush and regularly brushes his teeth. When he did an incatonation of the cat brushing his teeth, I laughed so hard I almost upchucked my dinner.
So naturally the liberal solution to the imbalance is to turn surplus men into “women.”