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Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite, with the potential to infect human beings and a broad spectrum of vertebrate hosts. Toxoplasmosis is an endemic disease with a worldwide distribution. Cats and wild felidae play a crucial role in the epidemiology of this disease, as they are the only species that shed the environmentally resistant oocysts in their faeces. Sporulated oocysts from infected cats and bradyzoites from tissue cysts are infectious to all warm-blooded animals including human beings. Dogs and cats may act as intermediate hosts and could also suffer clinical toxoplasmosis of variable severity. The majority of cases in immunocompetent people are asymptomatic or produce only mild symptoms, while in congenitally infected children and immunocompromised people, infection causes high rates of morbidity and mortality. Due to the potential public health risk of toxoplasmosis, veterinarians need to be able to identify, control infected and treat sick cats and recommend measures to prevent T. gondii infection in cats as well as in human beings.
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