With Parasites, Nothing is Sacred: Study Finds Lungworms Alter How Their Host Toads Poop

Researchers from the University of Sydney had to get creative to see how a toad lungworm alters its host's behavior. Photo Credit: Patt Finnerty Parasites are nature's master puppeteers. Jewel wasps can make cockroaches into docile, edible nannies for their young with just a sting, for example. Some nematodes convince the insects they infect to commit watery suicide because their larvae are aquatic. It's even thought that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that usually infects rats and cats, can alter our brains when we accidentally host them instead, subtly altering our personalities and maybe even making us more likely to commit suicide. So perhaps it's not surprising that scientists recently discovered lungworms alter the behavior of their cane toad hosts to ensure things are most comfortable for them. But what is surprising, or at least a little unnerving, is what they actually do: the worms makes their hosts poop differently.  The question of whether the parasites were manipulating toads arose after Patt Finnerty noticed that infected toads acted a little differently in other lab trials he was conducing. Further investigation revealed significant differences in behavior between infected and uninfected toads, particularly when it comes to their bowel movements. The findings are published in an amusingly-titled new study in the journal