http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/scientists-decry-usdas-decision-end-cat-parasite-research

A closed laboratory relied on cats to sustain its research program.

For the past 37 years, a small research lab in Beltsville, Maryland, has been the world’s leading hub for scientists working on Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that infects more than 1 billion people globally, causing death, blindness, and birth defects. Operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the facility is a source of expertise and rare, sought-after materials for researchers working to stop the parasite, which can be transmitted by food and has no human vaccine and no cure.