Red Alert! Reed Alert! Zombie Parasite in Aussie Meat! Run for the Hills! Panic! Buy Heaps of Toilet Paper! Even Cook Your Meat! By James Reed
I did not believe this when I saw it on Natural News.com. That site has been banned by my community centre for being “Extremist,” so I have to go to an internet cafe, where young guys do gaming and watch hard core porn, I think. I take hand sanitizer with me, a litre bottle, but I digress. I may have panicked, which is unusual for me, being so calm, since this problem might only apply to undercooked meat, maybe. I fear for the cats of Australia.
“A dangerous parasite could be lurking in as much as half of all shop-bought lamb mince, according to a study.
Researchers tested lamb on sale in shops in Australia and found 43 per cent of the samples had Toxoplasma in them.
The parasite, best known for being carried by cats, can stay in the body for life and cause eye problems, schizophrenia or even brain damage in severe cases.
People must be careful to either freeze meat or make sure it's cooked thoroughly in order to destroy all traces of the parasite.
The study was done by Flinders University in Adelaide and researchers bought and tested supermarket lamb meat three times a week for six months.
It's well known that raw meat can carry the common parasite but the study found 34 out of 79 samples of lamb mince were carrying Toxoplasma gondii.
If consumed, the parasite causes toxoplasmosis, an infection which can cause serious illness in people with weakened immune systems.
Healthy people should not suffer if they ingest Toxoplasma, but it can cause flu-like symptoms or blurring, pain or redness in the eyes.
It may lead to severe toxoplasmosis in some cases, which can cause permanent brain, organ or eye damage.
A recent study of 80,000 people also found being infected with the parasite can also raise the risk of someone developing schizophrenia by 50 per cent.
It is thought to cause changes in the brain by disrupting an amino acid which controls levels of a chemical which has been linked to the psychiatric disorder.
'Consuming raw or undercooked meat is a common route for individuals to contract toxoplasmosis,' said the scientists, led by Dr Justine Smith.
'And meat sourced from sheep, in particular, has the potential to harbour T. gondii.
'Lamb is a staple meat in Australia, where it typically is marketed without freezing and often is served "rare".'
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK has in the past warned people about eating undercooked lamb.
It says eating pink lamb steaks is relatively low-risk but mince should be cooked thoroughly to avoid food poisoning.
It's not known how many people get toxoplasmosis because so many people carry the parasite but either don't have symptoms or don't get diagnosed – some 40million people in the US are thought to have it in their bodies.
As well as raw meat, it can also be spread from cats to their owners through faeces.
In their study the researchers did not find any evidence of salmonella or campylobacter – common causes of food poisoning – which showed toxoplasma was still present even in meat produced in sanitary conditions.
It was not clear whether their findings could apply to meat bought in the US or the UK because they only used Australia-specific products.
The scientists said it would be easy to avoid getting poisoned.
Dr Smith and her colleagues wrote: '[Parasite] cysts are rendered non-viable by cooking meat to an internal temperature of 66°C [151°F].
'Alternatively, meat may be frozen overnight at -12°C [10°F] to destroy the cysts.
'Specific messaging that is sensitive to consumer cooking preferences may be helpful to educate the Australian population of the risk related to consuming undercooked lamb, which applies particularly to pregnant women, the elderly and immunocompromised persons.'
The team's results were specific to meat bought in Australia, and they said they would now carry out the tests on other types of meat.”
https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00036
“T. gondii is a single-celled microbe around 6 μm (micrometers, 1/1,000 of a millimeter) in size, which is ~550 times smaller than an apple seed (3.3 mm)! This organism is so tiny that we can only see it using the powerful lenses of a microscope. T. gondii only survives and multiplies when it infects a living cell, which is why it is classified as a parasite
The animals that parasites infect are called hosts
, and parasites often have complex life cycles that involve different shapes of the parasite and multiple hosts.
The life cycle of T. gondii is shown in Figure 1. Cats are one of the hosts of T. gondii, and they are the only host in which this parasite produces structures called oocysts
An oocyst is a thick-walled structure in which the parasite can survive for a long time outside a host. When cats are infected, they release the parasites’ oocysts into the environment through their feces (poop). When other animals, such as birds, mice, cows, or even humans, ingest water, vegetables, or meat contaminated with oocysts, these animals can become infected. Once inside a new host, the parasites emerge from the oocysts and multiply. Now begins the fight between the parasite and the hosts’ immune system
After invading a host cell, T. gondii tries to protect itself against attacks by the host’s immune system by forming a bubble-like compartment inside the host cell. Inside this compartment, the parasite multiplies many times, enough to fill the entire cell, to the point of exploding the host cell! These parasites are now free to infect new cells in the host. This cycle then repeats itself. The cycle of parasite replication is what causes the disease known as toxoplasmosis
- gondiioocysts are shed in the cats’ feces. Intermediate hosts (birds, mammals, including animals bred for human consumption, and humans themselves) often become infected due to environmental factors, such as eating soil, water, or vegetables contaminated with oocysts. After being ingested, parasites spread themselves into neural and muscle tissue. Usually, the host immune system is working well and these parasites develop into tissue cysts, which is the dormant form of T. gondii. New cats become infected by the direct ingestion of environmental oocysts, or by consuming intermediate hosts harboring tissue cysts, such as mice. Interestingly, if mice are infected by the parasite, they lose their fear of being eaten by cats. It looks like the mice turn into zombies due to the T. gondii infection, which makes them easy prey for the cats.
Meanwhile, the immune system of the infected animal fights to kill T. gondii or at least block its multiplication. So, to avoid the attack coming from the host’s defense mechanism, the parasites frequently turn into a sleeping form, lying dormant in the muscles, eyes, and brains of the infected animals. The parasites might sleep forever, without causing any damage, if the host’s immune system is working well.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN T. GONDII GETS INTO THE BRAIN?
But, how do cats get infected with T. gondii in the first place? Well, as everybody knows, cats like to hunt and to eat mice. If a cat eats a mouse infected with T. gondii, the cat will become infected. Here is where things get even more interesting. We mentioned that T. gondii can infect a host’s brain. The brain controls all the vital functions of an animal, so if parasites take up residence in the brain, it can be harmful. Let us find out what may happen if a mouse’s brain is infected with T. gondii. Mice are normally afraid of cats, because cats are predators that present a constant, mortal threat to mice. However, when the brains of mice are infected with T. gondii, they lose their fear of cats, and can easily stare them in the face. Thus, the parasite seems to turn mice into fearless zombies! Is not that crazy? Mice lose their fear of cats and risk being eaten by them! This happens because, once the parasite is inside a mouse’s brain, it may disrupt brain cell communication in a brain area called the amygdala,
which is responsible for the feeling of fear [1]. Although this is a tragic situation for mice, it is perfect for T. gondii, since infected mice will be more likely to get eaten by cats, which helps the parasite to reproduce!
CAN HUMANS BE INFECTED WITH T. GONDII?
We told you that T. gondii can infect mammals, and humans are mammals… so could our cells be infected by this parasite too? The answer is yes! It has been found that 30–50% of the global population is infected with T. gondii [2]. It is also estimated that 50–80% of Brazilians are infected and already have symptoms of toxoplasmosis. Usually, healthy people who are infected with T. gondii have no symptoms, because their immune systems keep the parasite from causing toxoplasmosis. When infected people do have symptoms, they are generally flu-like, such as muscle pain, fever and headache. These symptoms can last for weeks to months and then go away. However, the parasite remains in the body in an inactive state, even after symptoms are completely gone. If the person’s immune system becomes suppressed at some point, the parasites can be reactivated and are able to infect other cells and multiply. Once awake, parasites can cause severe damage to the eyes and the brain. Also, if a pregnant woman becomes infected, the parasites can be transmitted to the fetus and cause malformations.
Can T. gondii affect the brains of humans like it does in mice? Several interesting facts suggest that this parasite can affect humans when it enters their brains. Scientists have described that, in people without a history of mental illness, T. gondii can cause abnormal behavior. They found a correlation between T. gondii infection and self-directed violence, including suicide. Another study showed that students with toxoplasmosis were more likely to be businessmen, due to the lack of “fear of failure,” than those who were not infected by the parasite. Although these findings are interesting, further research is needed to understand the mental and psychological consequences of being infected by this parasite.”
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