DEFINITION
Toxoplasma gondii—an obligate intracellular coccidian protozoan parasite that infects nearly all mammals; Felidae the definitive hosts; all other warm-blooded animals are intermediate hosts.
PATHOPHYSIOLOGY
Severity and manifestation—depend on location and degree of tissue injury caused by tissue cysts
Infection—acquired by ingestion of tissue cysts or oocysts; organisms spread to extraintestinal organs via blood or lymph; results in focal necrosis to many organs (heart, eye, CNS)
Acute disseminated infection rarely fatal
Chronic disease—tissue cysts form; low-grade disease; usually not clinically apparent unless immunosuppression or concomitant illness allows organism to proliferate, causing an acute inflammatory response
Clinical disease—often associated with other infections that cause severe immunosuppression (e.g., canine distemper, FIP, and FeLV).
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