Public health implications of rodent-borne zoonotic diseases

Abstract

Rodents are the most abundant and diversified order of living mammals in the world. Their proximity with human population helps in the transmission of various zoonotic diseases. They are known to transmit around 60 common zoonotic diseases and not only serve as reservoirs of some of the emerging zoonoses but also hosts for a number of infectious diseases. They also provide a nexus between wildlife and humans exposing humans to zoonotic diseases circulating in the natural ecosystem. Rodent populations fluctuate in abundance over both seasonal and multiannual time scales. Rodents are known to be the primary or definitive host for diseases like plague, leptospirosis, Lyme disease, tick-borne relapsing fever, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, leishmaniasis, hymenolepiasis, and moniliformiasis; whereas in other diseases, rodents act as the secondary host. There is an urgent need for field studies of rodent population to determine the likely role of particular rodent species as reservoirs of these diseases and to understand rodent-human interactions. Keywords: Rodents, Zoonotic diseases