Looking for the name of a specific bird - mouse parasite.

[The Backlash Cometh]

I think it's a worm. It begins with a rat or mouse picking it up when he goes through bird droppings (the bird must be predatory) then, the parasite "hatches" in the rat/mouse, matures as it moves into the rodent's brain. In the brain, it intentionally drives the rat bonkers, so the rat will do uncharaacteristic things like, go running in a meadow, or running around in circles. This will bring attention to it and it will be eaten by a predatory bird, and the cycle continues.

Anyone know the name of the parasite?

[carpetbagger]

1. A few ideas, nothing exact I can immediately think of.

You might be thinking about toxoplasmosis, where the Toxoplasma protozoan goes from cat to mouse like that (possibly also to people, I was in a research study once where they took pictures of the clutter on my desk, asked some questions, and drew my blood for Toxoplasma). Most of the bird-related parasites I know of that go from bird to prey have invertebrate hosts, usually flukes/worms that infect snails or in one case fish. I can't think immediately of a bird-mouse parasitic life cycle, except for a few that involve bird droppings as a particularly rich form of soil with just the right nutrients and ph (and this differs from bird to bird and parasite to parasite), but like I said, the parasite merely grows better in the dropping-enriched soils.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. I assumed it was a worm. But, you may be on the right track.

[XemaSab]

2. Can't think of anything

:shrug:

[kestrel91316]

4. I don't think it's a worm per se. I think I have heard this said about

Toxoplasma gondii, the causative agent of toxoplasmosis. I don't know if it's true, and that's pitiful, because I should, lol.

Toxoplasma is a microscopic protozoal parasite and not a worm.