5 ms·

I read your linked piece. It’s about pregnant women and toxoplasmosis and variations in treatments and outcomes in France and the US. I didn’t see anything abou

I read your linked piece. It’s about pregnant women and toxoplasmosis and variations in treatments and outcomes in France and the US. I didn’t see anything about rare meats, and I only saw comparisons in infection rates among pregnant woman, women of child-bearing age, and infants in France vs US and a mention of South America when comparing type diversity. What am I missing?

cm2012 2y ago
Thank you for noticing, I pasted in the wrong link! Corrected: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118145/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118145/
- kbenson 2y ago
  I'm not sure that says what you claimed? Overall, eating raw or undercooked beef, lamb, or other meats; contact with soil; and travel outside the country were major sources of infection. Contact with soil is from cats shedding oocysts, as covered earlier in the same extract, and while that doesn't necessitate owning a cat, I would classify it as exposure to cats (your neighbors outdoor cat shitting in your yard is still cat exposure to my sensibilities). The association of cats and human toxoplasmosis is difficult to assess by epidemiological surveys because soil, not the cats, is the main culprit. Oocysts are not found on cat fur and are often buried in soil along with cat faeces. Therefore, direct contact with cats is irrelevant with respect to T gondii transmission, and soil contact is universal and difficult to avoid. Which doesn't say cats don't matter, just that direct exposure doesn't matter. Soil exposure is exposure to cats through an intermediary, just not direct. It will still likely be affected by prevalence of cats in a population, even if not necessarily at a household level. So, I think the article answers my original question to a degree, but I also think your claim that almost everyone that has it got it through eating meat with it in it is too strong given the sources you quoted (thanks a lot for posting them though, it's always nice to have data for a discussion!). If you think my reading of it is incorrect or I'm missing something, please let me know though.
  - cm2012 2y ago
    Yes, that's more what I meant - there's almost no cases just from owning cats, it's from dealing with contaminated soil from stray cats. But the internet zeitgeist is "cat litter boxes give you toxo!" which is just not true the vast majority of the time.

cm2012 2y ago

Thank you for noticing, I pasted in the wrong link! Corrected: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118145/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118145/

kbenson 2y ago
I'm not sure that says what you claimed? Overall, eating raw or undercooked beef, lamb, or other meats; contact with soil; and travel outside the country were major sources of infection. Contact with soil is from cats shedding oocysts, as covered earlier in the same extract, and while that doesn't necessitate owning a cat, I would classify it as exposure to cats (your neighbors outdoor cat shitting in your yard is still cat exposure to my sensibilities). The association of cats and human toxoplasmosis is difficult to assess by epidemiological surveys because soil, not the cats, is the main culprit. Oocysts are not found on cat fur and are often buried in soil along with cat faeces. Therefore, direct contact with cats is irrelevant with respect to T gondii transmission, and soil contact is universal and difficult to avoid. Which doesn't say cats don't matter, just that direct exposure doesn't matter. Soil exposure is exposure to cats through an intermediary, just not direct. It will still likely be affected by prevalence of cats in a population, even if not necessarily at a household level. So, I think the article answers my original question to a degree, but I also think your claim that almost everyone that has it got it through eating meat with it in it is too strong given the sources you quoted (thanks a lot for posting them though, it's always nice to have data for a discussion!). If you think my reading of it is incorrect or I'm missing something, please let me know though.
- cm2012 2y ago
  Yes, that's more what I meant - there's almost no cases just from owning cats, it's from dealing with contaminated soil from stray cats. But the internet zeitgeist is "cat litter boxes give you toxo!" which is just not true the vast majority of the time.