Now, to the problem.
If you've already read that article from Scientific American, 'How Kitty is Killing the Dolphins' let us know and give us pointers!!!
In a nutshell, the article talks about how Toxoplasma gondii from cat feces and S. neurona from opossum scat are making it through our diminishing natural buffers. They infect dolphins, sea otters, and other sea mammals and kill them.
"A disturbing trend was found in a six-year study that monitored marine mammals in the Pacific Northwest. More than 5,000 dead marine mammals (dolphins, porpoises, sea otters, seals, sea lions and three species of whale) were observed, many of them suffering from encephalitis (brain swelling) long associated with Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled parasite. The study was published by the National Institutes of Health in 2011.The issue at hand is the feces from outdoor cats. The waste product contains T. gondii, a parasite that live its entire life cycle inside a cat. T. gondii also is happy enough in other animals, including humans and, as noted, marine mammals." Says MSN News.Other sources you can check out:
Save our sea mammals! Stay tuned for more updates when Snowy and Shocker (our two researchers) tie their article together, and when the rest of us finish our projects!
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