The role of ticks in transmission cycle of Toxoplasma gondii

Toxoplasmosis is globally distributed, water- and food borne zoonosis caused by the single protozoan Toxoplasma gondii and probably one-third of the world’s human population is infected with this pathogen. Domestic and wild felids are definitive hosts of this pathogen and intermediate hosts for great variety of other homoeothermic animals. Human as other of the intermediate hosts may become infected in the main route of infection; it is the ingestion of parasite oocysts in contaminated water or soil and undercooked meat. However, the mechanism which this parasite uses to so large spread is not fully understood, because oral transmission does not explain the common event of this parasite in a variety of hosts, such as herbivorous animals or rodents and birds, as well as routes of spread to domestic hosts. Such a wide circle of hosts suggests a possibility of other paths of transmission and a role of ticks, the bloodseeking arthropods was considered in the transmission of T. gondii.