Great. Blame global warming and the kitties for whale parasites!
“Science” reporting by the BBC reaches a new low...
Some serious twists and contradictions in this story.
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.