Toxoplasmosis--an overview.

Increasing concern over food safety has focussed attention on food-borne parasitic diseases, particularly toxoplasmosis. Infection by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is widely prevalent in humans and in food animals. Cats are the main reservoirs of infection because they are only hosts that excrete environmentally resistant oocysts. Toxoplasma gondii infection is transmitted by ingesting undercooked infected meat, congenitally, and via feces of infected cats. The most severe clinical infections occur in congenitally infected children. Toxoplasmosis is a major cause of abortion and neonatal mortality in sheep, goats, and pigs. Strategies to control toxoplasmosis are outlined.