The potential for hantaviral transmission among wild Norway rats by wounding associated with aggressive interactions was evaluated using a prospective sero-epidemiological study coupled with a mark-release-recapture survey. There was a significant association between an animal's serological status and the presence of wounds. Longitudinal studies of marked and released animals showed seroconvers...

Acute and chronic cases of toxoplasmosis in Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus mindanensis caught in agricultural, commercial and residential sites in Dasmariñas, Cavite, Philippines were determined serologically. Fifty-eight percent of R. norvegicus and 42.0% of R. r. mindanensis were positive for anti-T. gondii antibodies (Abs). Infection was higher in male rats, and those caught in the comm...

A survey of ectoparasites on rodents was carried out bimonthly from April 2008 to March 2009 in 3 districts of Sukhothai Province, northern Thailand. A total of 130 rodents comprising 8 species of hosts were captured and examined for ectoparasites. The hosts examined were Bandicota indica, Bandicota savilei, Rattus losea, Rattus rattus, Rattus exulans, Rattus norvegicus, Menetes berdmorei and T...

Amastigotes of a Kenyan strain of Leishmania donovani from a previously infected hamster were used to inoculate Rattus rattus and the laboratory white rat intracardially. The animals were sampled at 2, 4, 6, and 12 weeks post-inoculation to determine infectivity and total parasite burdens in the liver and spleen. Higher parasite burdens were observed in the livers and spleens of R. rattus. Para...

Blind subterranean mole rats of the Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies in Israel have evolved multiple adaptive strategies to face underground hypoxia. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) and erythropoietin (Epo) are key factors in the development of normal erythropoiesis and angiogenesis. Here, we demonstrate via real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) quantification that Spalax fetal l...

The small Indian mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus) is one of the world’s 100 worst invasive species (IUCN 2000). It has negative impacts on several small mammals on islands where it was introduced. We assess the abundance of small mammal populations and the activity time of introduced ship rats (Rattus rattus) on three mongoose-infested and three mongoose-free islands in the Adriatic Sea, Croa...

Using samples collected on the island of Corsica, a comparative study was done of the morphometry of Fasciola hepatica eggs shed by cattle and by naturally and experimentally infected murid rodents (wild Mus musculus and Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus Wistar laboratory strain). Eggs shed by murids are smaller in size than those shed by naturally infected cattle. A second study analyzed the...

An investigation of helminths in the Norway (brown) rat, Rattus norvegicus, and roof rat, Rattus rattus, from Chiang Mai Moat during May to August 1995, was done. Thirty-three out of thirty-eight trapped rats were infected (86.84%); 16 R. norvegicus (100%) and 17/22 R. rattus (77.27%). The rat was infected with 10 helminth species: 4 trematodes, Centrocestus sp (2.63%), Echinostoma ilocanum (10...

The aim of study was to investigate the toxic effect of triptolide fed in bait on reproduction of male house rat, Rattus rattus. Feeding of cereal based bait containing 0.2% triptolide to male R. rattus for 5 days in no-choice feeding test, leading to mean daily ingestion of 20.45 mg/kg bw of triptolide, was found effective in significantly (P ≤ 0.05) reducing sperm motility and viability in ca...