Toxoplasma gondii can only have sex in one place in the entire universe: the small intestine of a cat. Every other animal it infects, humans included, is just a layover.
To get back to a cat, the parasite needs to get eaten by one. So in mice and rats, it rewires the rodent’s brain, it stops fearing the smell of cat urine and starts feeling drawn to it instead. Infected rodents walk toward the thing that eats them.
To get back to a cat, the parasite needs to get eaten by one. So in mice and rats, it rewires the rodent’s brain, it stops fearing the smell of cat urine and starts feeling drawn to it instead. Infected rodents walk toward the thing that eats them.