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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #270266
Title: Toxoplasma gondii

Author
item GUY, EDWARD - Public Health Wales
item Hill, Dolores
item Dubey, Jitender

Submitted to: Lancet
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/2011
Publication Date: 7/6/2012
Citation: Guy, E., Hill, D.E., Dubey, J.P. 2012. Toxoplasma gondii. In: Robertson, L.J., Smith, H.V., editors. Food Borne Protozoan Parasites. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Publishers. p. 167-188.

Interpretive Summary: N/A

Technical Abstract: Toxoplasma gondii is perhaps the most widespread protozoan parasite affecting humans with an estimated 1-2 billion of the world’s population currently infected. T. gondii, which is the only species of this genus, also infects virtually all warm blooded animals including humans, livestock, birds, and marine mammals. Toxoplasma has a complex lifecycle involving both sexual and asexual reproduction. The cat family (Felidae) is the only definitive host in which sexual reproduction occurs. When Toxoplasma oocysts shed by cats are ingested, the organism forms tissue cysts that will persist within the body, typically in heart and skeletal muscle and central nervous system tissues, for many years or for life. When an animal infected with Toxoplasma is consumed, the infection can be passed on to a new host by any viable parasite within the tissues.