From:
"Lisa Oestereich"
Date: 2006-10-12 14:25:55 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] might be of interest to breeders who wind up
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Every breeder I've ever talked to said that their litters are ALWAYS
mostly female, which would be nature's way of keeping the species going.
After all, how many boys do you actually need to get the job done?
What is very interesting in humans is that we're often told that there
are more girls born than boys, in general. I wonder, would nature do
the same for us (WAAY more girls born than boys) if it were not for
women infected with dormant toxoplasmosis? =
Lisa
-----Original Message-----
From: sukiec@optonline.net [mailto:sukiec@optonline.net] =
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 1:19 PM
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
with many males
This is a human study, but since ferrets can wind up with toxoplasmosis
(though unlike cats they do not appear to pass it) this may be of
interest:
BEGIN QUOTE
Press Releases
Heidelberg, 11 October 2006
Bad blood between boys and girls
Women infected with toxoplasmosis are more likely to have boys
=
=
Women infected with dormant toxoplasmosis are more likely to give birth
to boys than women who are Toxoplasma negative, according to research by
S. Kankova and colleagues from the Departments of Parasitology,
Microbiology and Zoology, Charles University; the Centre of Reproductive
Medicine; and GynCentrum, in the Czech Republic. They found that the
presence of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii in the mothers' blood, one of
the most common parasites in humans with a worldwide prevalence of
20-80%, increased the likelihood that these women would give birth to a
boy. This is the first study [1], published in Springer's journal
Naturwissenschaften this week, to suggest an effect of parasitic
infection on the sex of a baby.
Kankova and colleagues analysed the effect of latent (or dormant)
toxoplasmosis [2] on the probability of the birth of a boy in humans.
Latent toxoplasmosis is asymptomatic but is usually a life-long
infection characterised by the presence of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies in
the blood.
They analysed over 1800 clinical records of babies born between
1996-2004 in private maternity clinics in the Czech Republic. Women
attending these private clinics were routinely tested for toxoplasmosis.
The records contained information on the mother's age, the concentration
of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies in the mother's blood, previous deliveries
and abortions, and the sex of the newborn.
On average worldwide, for every three children born, only one is a boy.
Kankova's team found that Toxoplasma positive mothers gave birth to more
boys than did Toxoplasma negative women. The probability of a male
birth also increased, up to two boys in three children, with increasing
levels of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies. According to the researchers, the
increased survival of male embryos in infected women may be explained by
toxoplasmosis' modulating and suppressing effects on the immune system.
The authors caution that this observational study suggests that
toxoplasmosis may be the cause of this increase in male births, but it
cannot establish cause and effect. They conclude that "an independent
confirmation of this tentative conclusion by a manipulative experiment
(by experimental infection of animals) is necessary."
1. Kankova S et al (2006). Women infected with parasite Toxoplasma
have more sons.
(Naturwissenschaften, DOI 10.1007/s00114-006-0166-2)
2. Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by parasites transmitted to
humans from consumption of raw or undercooked meat of an intermediate
host (such as pig, sheep and rabbit) and food or water contaminated with
soil containing cat feces. If a pregnant woman is infected with
toxoplasmosis, this has potentially fatal consequences for the fetus.
Article is available to journalists as a pdf. =
Contact:
Joan Robinson
tel: +49 6221 487-8130
END QUOTE
Toxoplasmosis can also damage fetuses of either gender.
(It can survive in run-off and be picked up by shellfish. In the
Pacific NW there are otter populations in serious risk because that
mustelid cousin of ferrets is prone to very severe brain damage from
Toxo infection.)
=
=
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