Study on the prevalence of ectoparasites and haemoparasites of domestic rats in parts of Akure South Local Government was carried out from July to September 2015. The rodents were trapped using locally fabricated traps. Body brushing technique was used to collect their ectoparasites. Blood samples from each rat were collected and examine using standard biological techniques. Specie of rodents c...

Rodent repellents are chemicals which by taste or odour or possibly by both will prevent animal from feeding or gnawing. Such substances may be used in protecting an area from rodent infestation or in protecting packaged food, packing materials, electric cables, and other important vulnerable materials. Mature and healthy house rat, Rattus rattus of both sexes, was exposed to 5, 10, and 20% euc...

It is now widely accepted that novel infectious disease can be a leading cause of serious population decline and even outright extinction in some invertebrate and vertebrate groups (e.g., amphibians). In the case of mammals, however, there are still no well-corroborated instances of such diseases having caused or significantly contributed to the complete collapse of species. A case in point is ...

BACKGROUND Rats live in close proximity to human populations. Feral rodents are known to transmit diseases and act as reservoir hosts to many zoonotic parasites that pose health risks to humans. The aim of this study is to investigate endoparasitic infections in commensal rats and shrews caught in traditional wet markets in Taichung City, Taiwan. METHODS A total of 51 commensal wild rodents a...

Humans can get infected with several zoonotic diseases from being in close contact with rats. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence and histopathological changes caused by Calodium hepaticum and Cysticercus fasciolaris in infected livers of wild caught urban rats. Of the 98 urban rats (Rattus rattus diardii and Rattus norvegicus) autopsied, 64.3% were infected; 44.9% were infected ...

The patterns of nucleotide difference were compared at 3,473,111 codons from 9,390 aligned orthologous genes of mouse (Mus musculus), rat (Rattus norvegicus), and human (Homo sapiens). The results showed evidence of a higher frequency of both synonymous and nonsynonymous differences from human in the rat than in the mouse. However, contrary to a previous report, there was no evidence of a great...

Urban rats (Rattus spp.) are among the most ubiquitous pest species in the world. Previous research has shown that rat abundance is largely determined by features of the environment; however, the specific urban environmental factors that influence rat population density within cities have yet to be clearly identified. Additionally, there are no well described tools or methodologies for conducti...

Serodiagnosis of plague is very useful for its retrospective confirmation and for epidemiologic studies in humans and in rodents, since rats constitute the main natural reservoir of Yersinia pestis. We have developed a rapid test for the detection of IgG antibodies to fraction 1 (F1) based on immunochromatography and protein A to detect both human and rat IgG. When tested with reference human s...

Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, is endemic to Madagascar, particularly to the central highlands. Although plague has not been previously reported in northern Madagascar, an outbreak of pneumonic plague occurred in this remote area in 2011. Over a 27-day period, 17 suspected, 2 presumptive, and 3 confirmed human cases were identified, and all 15 untreated 20 patients died. Molecu...