| Summary: | The coccidian protozoan Toxoplasma gondii has a world-wide distribution. It causes toxoplasmosis, a potentially very serious disease to humans and other warm-blooded animals. Infection has in many studies been shown to be rather common in the Nordic countries also, where its prevalence both in domestic animals and wildlife can be explained by contacts with cats and their faeces, cats and wild felids being the only definitive hosts of the parasite known. Before the discovery of the complete life cycle of the parasite, other infection routes to animals were studied e.g. in Russia, where lateral transmission of infection in a reindeer herd was reported. The vehicle of infection was apparently body fluids, such as e.g. saliva and lacrimal fluid containing parasite tachyzoites, which might
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