I don't think having the parasite has anything to do with attraction to the smell of cat urine. But I don't really know anything about that. Not noticing the smell of cat urine when around it for a while can be explained by sensory adaptation. You know, the idea that when you've been in an outhouse for a while, you don't notice the smell. (:
All people with any kind of immune deficiency - pregnant women, people with AIDS, etc. - are discouraged from cleaning cat boxes. People cannot get toxoplasmosis from contact with a cat -- only with cat poop. There are various tests that can be done to identify it in humans. Here's an interesting article about the effects of toxoplasmosis in humans: http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/3/757.full R. Lee Zasloff, PhD Adjunct Instructor, Psychology American River College Sacramento, CA http://www.wix.com/rlzasloff/animal-connections ________________________________ From: Claudia Stanny [[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 1:32 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] NPR says... So do infected humans manifest the tolerance (or attraction to) the odor of cat urine like the rodents do? (Might explain how some people can own too many cats and not notice the aroma, although simple habituation could certainly also explain it.) Pregnant women are encouraged to get some one "else" (guess) to clean the litter box because the parasite poses a risk to the fetus. (This does not appear to encourage men to acquire too many cats!) Contact with the litter (or as Lee says, the poop) rather than the cat is the greatest danger of infection. I am curious, are there any tests of infection or treatments for this parasite? Claudia _____________________________________________ Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. Director Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Associate Professor NSF UWF Faculty ADVANCE Scholar School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences University of West Florida 11000 University Parkway Pensacola, FL 32514 – 5751 Phone: (850) 857-6355 or 473-7435 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/cutla/ Personal Web Pages: http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=563788.826e2126ca226db4aa4ffe75f22f5c88&n=T&l=tips&o=18894 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-18894-563788.826e2126ca226db4aa4ffe75f22f5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-18894-563788.826e2126ca226db4aa4ffe75f22f5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=18896 or send a blank email to leave-18896-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
