title: Animals are key to human toxoplasmosis.
abstract: Toxoplasma gondii is an extremely sucessfull protozoal parasite which infects almost all mamalian species including humans. Approximately 30% of the human population worldwide is chronically infected with T. gondii. In general, human infection is asymptomatic but the parasite may induce severe disease in fetuses and immunocompromised patients. In addition, T. gondii may cause sight-threatening posterior uveitis in immunocompetent patients. Apart from few exceptions, humans acquire T. gondii from animals. Both, the oral uptake of T. gondii oocysts released by specific hosts, i.e. felidae, and of cysts persisting in muscle cells of animals result in human toxoplasmosis. In the present review, we discuss recent new data on the cell biology of T. gondii and parasite diversity in animals. In addition, we focus on the impact of these various parasite strains and their different virulence on the clinical outcome of human congenital toxoplasmosis and T. gondii uveitis.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Microbiology, Infection Control and Prevention, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany; Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany. Electronic address: dirk.schlueter@med.ovgu.de.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schlüter
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Däubener
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany.
authors.forename: Gereon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schares
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Groß
authors.affiliation: Eye Clinic, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Pleyer
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lüder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology*; D014123:Toxoplasmosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*; D014124:Toxoplasmosis, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*
keywords: Congenital toxoplasmosis; Epidemiology; Toxoplasma; Toxoplasma eye infection; Zoonotic infection