Word: toxoplasma
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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What's killing the sea otters? Sometimes the cause is clear: a shark bite, a bullet, an outboard motor. But about one-quarter of last year's fatalities have been traced to a pair of protozoan parasites, Toxoplasma gondii and Sarcocystis neurona, that are known to breed in cats and opossums. Could sea otters be dying because California cat owners are flushing used litter down the toilet...
...eats rodent or bird infected with Toxoplasma gondii parasite...
...mouth and throat, making it difficult and painful to speak or eat; herpes, not just the garden variety of sores, but ulcerating infections of the mouth, genitals or anus that raged for months. The patients fell prey to exotic bugs seen more often in animals than humans, like Toxoplasma gondii and Cryptosporidium, which causes diarrhea. Doctors were appalled. Says Dr. Paul Volberding, 36, who heads the AIDS clinic at San Francisco General Hospital: "You see someone your own age dying of such a gruesome disease that you can't do anything to stop...