Posted on 02/15/2014 8:35:20 AM PST by Seizethecarp
The cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which can cause blindness in people, has been identified in Beluga in the western Arctic.
The discovery by University of British Columbia scientists has prompted a health advisory to Inuit people in the region who eat the whale's meat.
Researchers say it is an example of how the warming of the Arctic is allowing the freer movement of pathogens.
Icier conditions in the past acted as an obstruction to infectious agents.
Quite how the parasite got into the whales is a puzzle that scientists are now trying to solve.
They suspect the influx of cats to the Arctic brought in as pets will have imported the pathogen.
The contents of their faeces will somehow have got into watercourses and then been washed into the ocean. And with the significantly warmer temperatures in the Arctic now, liquid water is mobile for longer.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Great. A crazy cat lady Beluga.
Great. Blame global warming and the kitties for whale parasites!
“Science” reporting by the BBC reaches a new low...
This is not that big a deal. One-third of Americans have already been exposed to toxiplasmosis without even noticing.
And a whole lot of folks get it fro sources other than cats.
Some serious twists and contradictions in this story.
Well, Al Gore did say that the north pole would be ice-free by now. I guess all that white stuff in the satellite photos is just an illusion. Who are you gonna believe - Al Gore or your lyin’ eyes?
My car didn’t start. Global warming! I have indigestion. Global warming! My dog wouldn’t listen. Global warming! My big toe hurts. Global warming! My pizza is cold. Global warming!
I could do this all day. Does that make me uh shyientist?
The thing that always puzzles me is where they are intent on describing Toxi as a cat based parasite. Which based on it’s life cycle, it is not.
Toxi is a mouse/rat based parasite.
Cats only become afflicted with it after their first exposure to an infected rodent. And they are only contagious for a couple weeks until their immune system becomes resistant to it. After that, then the cat will never become infected with it again, and will never be able to pass it on to other animals. (not contagious) If you do not get it from your cat in that two week period, then you will not get it from him.
Without rats/mice then toxi would become extinct in a couple weeks.
A carrier animal has to be infectious for long sustained periods of time, or indefinitely. Otherwise it’s not a carrier animal. It would be the same as describing humans as a toxi carrier animal.
On the other hand, toxi can exist in a sustained fashion in a rat/mouse population that has no contact with any other outside animals. Cat or otherwise.
Global warming for ignorance is the duct tape and bailing wire for old farm trucks. There is nothing it can’t do.
“Does that make me uh shyientist?”
Assuming you merged “shyster” with “scientist”, you coined a new word “shyientist” and it is sure to spread rapidly.
Good idea!
The first time that I got it
I was just ten years old
I got it from some kitty next foor
I went and see the Dr. and
He gave me the cure
I think I got it some more
In other news, “Arctic whales like the taste of cat turds”.
There goes that myth, again, about these things not being able to jump species.
Methinks that a researcher forgot to wash their hands.
Beluga’s migrate South in the winter. Toxoplasma gondii is also found in birds.
hahaha...pictures, please.
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