The Toxoplasma then continues its life cycle in the cat's gut, until it is pooped out.

Unlike Plasmodium, however, which can rely on the natural behaviour of mosquitoes to spread it around, Toxoplasma’s rodent hosts have a strong aversion to helping it into its next home.

Rats and mice infected with Toxoplasma start wandering around and drawing attention to themselves-in other words, behaving in ways that will bring them to the attention of cats.