Depending on whether you’re a cat-lover or someone who’s terrified of toxoplasmosis, this could be the most terrifying biological disaster scenario of all time. A biology professor has written a novel called World Without Cats. No more emergency kittens!
https://gizmodo.com/common-cat-parasite-could-actually-be-causing-schizophr-5883618
The self-published World Without Cats is about three scientists “who encounter a terrible feline hemorrhagic disease with the potential
to eliminate all cats worldwide.” The disease spreads, killing millions of cats, while the scientists race to find a cure. By the end, 80 percent of the cat population is already dead. Oh, and there’s added romantic tension, because the heroic veterinarian suspects the virus originated in the laboratory of her molecular biologist lover.
A press release quotes author Bonham Richards, a biology professor at California State University, as saying:
Recently, the BBC published an article suggesting that mammals probably
harbor as many as 320,000 ‘new’ viruses—that is, viruses that have never
before been observed. We have witnessed such viruses over the last 50 years or so with HIV,
SARS and continually appearing new strains of influenza and other
viruses. It is not at all preposterous, therefore, to imagine such a new
virus having the capacity to wipe out a species.
You can get World Without Cats for just $3.99 on the Kindle.
