Laboratory Animals > Volume 42, Number 1 > Pp. 92-98

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Easterbrook, J. D Articles by Klein, S L Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Social Bookmarking                      What's this?

Papers

A survey of rodent-borne pathogens carried by wild-caught Norway rats: a potential threat to laboratory rodent colonies

Judith D Easterbrook ^* , J B Kaplan ^*, G E Glass ^*, J Watson  and S L Klein ^*

^* The W Harry Feinstone Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore MD 21205, USA

Correspondence: J D Easterbrook, The W Harry Feinstone Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. Email: jeasterb{at}jhsph.edu

Unintentional infection of laboratory rodents can compromise scientific research as well as the health of the animals and animal handlers. The source of contamination often is unknown, but may be introduced by wild rats from surrounding environments. To determine whether rats in Baltimore, Maryland, USA carry infectious agents commonly found in laboratory rodent colonies, we live-trapped 162 rats during 2005 to 2006 and screened them for a panel of viruses, bacteria and parasites. Antibodies against rat coronavirus/sialodacryoadenitis virus (91.7%), Mycoplasma pulmonis (72.9%), cilia-associated respiratory bacillus (52.1%), rat parvovirus/rat minute virus (29.2%), Kilham rat virus (10.4%), Toolan's H-1 virus (10.4%), Sendai virus (4.2%) and Theiler's mouse encephalomyelitis virus (4.2%), were detected in wild-caught Norway rats. Antibodies against reovirus and pneumonia virus of mice were not detected in wild Norway rats. Endoparasites, including Nippostrongylus braziliensis (71.6%), Rodentolepis nana or Hymenolepis diminuta (34.4%), Hetarakis spumosa (24.1%) and Trichuris muris (14.8%), as well as ectoparasites (14.8%), were identified in wild-caught rats. The risk of pathogen transmission from wild-caught rats to laboratory colonies needs to be mitigated by minimizing exposures rather than assuming wild animals represent a minimal hazard.

Key Words: Zoonoses • pinworms • hookworms • ectoparasites • parvoviruses

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?