http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2007/04/03/how-a-parasite-can-help-a-cat-catch-its-mouse
"One such example is Toxoplasma infection of rodents. Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoa that reproduces in the intestines of cats, and is also the reason why pregnant women shouldn't change cat litter boxes. Although its sexual reproduction happens in the cat's innards, it has a two-part life cycle, and oocysts are then excreted by the cat. Animals that come into contact with the feces become infected, and if they're unfortunate enough to be eaten by a cat later on, the Toxoplasma bug has scored a win and goes on to start a new cycle. Here's the interesting bit: Toxoplasma fixes the odds. A new study from Ajai Vyas and colleagues at Stanford University, published in PNAS this week, has discovered the mechanism by which the parasitic protozoa does this. Previous studies had shown that infected rodents lacked the instinctive aversion to cat urine; instead they had a vague preference for it. The work in this paper confirms those findings, and also shows how it happens. " ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Deploy Web Applications Quickly across the enterprise with ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2 Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:231962 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
