Why do you love cats?

Why do you love cats? The answers may be because they are adorable, lovely or funny. Yes, all the answers are right! But can there be another strange reason? Is it possible to say that you love cats because of a disease? And the rate of spread of the disease can be more than what you can think.

The name of the disease is “toxoplasmosis” caused by a parasite called “toxoplasma gondii.” One third of the world’s population is infected by this disease and most of them don’t even know that they have suffered from that disease. Healthy people may not show a symptom at all. If they did, it would not be severe and would be the same as the flu.

These parasites can reproduce only in the intestines of the cats. The new born parasites called “oocysts” are carried along in the cat’s faeces. A cat can produce oocysts for an average amount of 100 million. These are eaten by rats and other insects and animals and oocysts start to pierce and enter into their tissues. There, they grow into “tissue cysts.” If the infected rats and animals are eaten by other cats, the parasite reproduces again in the intestine and the cycle goes around once more. But rats will run away from cats due to their natural behaviour so it’s not easy for the cycle to get one more time. This is solved by “toxoplasma.”

The parasites attach to the rat’s white blood cells and reach the brain. In the brain, they start to disturb and control the rat’s movements. The rat can’t think properly any more and it’s responses become lazy. Unusually, it becomes to like cats’ urine.

The mechanism of toxoplasmosis is not known well yet. But toxoplasmosis makes dopamine to be produced more. Dopamine is a hormone that causes happiness and braveness. Therefore there is a theory that this overly produced dopamine makes rats love cats.

The host for this parasite is not only rats, also other creatures. We, human beings also have a chance to be infected if polluted water and vegetables are taken without cleaning, from the ground or from a cat’s litter box or eating meats that are not well-cooked.

A question is that many cat lovers are because of toxoplasmosis? There is still no clear proof to answer this. But it’s certain that toxoplasma benefits a lot from human beings. Rats and mice are the billions of hosts for the parasite. It can be claimed that these parasites are the most successful ones in the world. Also note that you and your cat probably can have this parasite infected.