Surveys have shown that nonclinical infections with T. gondii are widespread in U.S. pigs, with estimates of 3 percent of market pigs and 18 percent of breeding stock with positive serum samples. The parasitic infection persists in pigs despite good quality management procedures. Among food animals, pigs are the major source of human infection. Hogs can become infected by eating feed contaminated by cats, or by eating other infected hosts such as dead rodents in hog pens. Cats are the main host problem since all developmental stages of T. gondii occur in them, but not in other species.
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