Toxoplasmosis research, a waste of money?

[Michael Oberdorfer]

The Washington Post reports an animal activist organization, the White Coat Waste Project (WCW,) has filed a federal lawsuit against the U. S. Department of Agriculture regarding research on toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic protozoan disease in mammals, and cats are a major carrier of this disease.

The goal of the WCW suit is "to unite animal-lovers and liberty-lovers to expose and end wasteful taxpayer-funded animal experiments.”

According to the USDA’s Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory website on toxoplasmosis: “nearly one-third of humanity has been exposed to this parasite. In most adults it does not cause serious illness, but it can cause blindness and mental retardation in congenitally infected children and devastating disease in immunocompromised individuals.”

Do you think this research using cats is warranted or a waste of money?