Vet Med - Czech, 2004, 49(3):70-74 | DOI: 10.17221/5679-VETMED

Parasitological survey of rats in rural regions of Croatia

D. Stojcevic, Z. Mihaljevic, A. Marinculic
1 , Z. M 2, A. M 1 1Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia
2 Croatian Veterinary Institute, Zagreb, Croatia

A parasitological survey of 255 rats, trapped in rural regions of Croatia, was carried out. The survey revealed infection with 7 helminth species (2 cestodes, 5 nematodes and eggs of 2 accidental parasites). Also, 8 ectoparasite species (2 fleas, 3 lice, and 3 mites) were found. Overall infection rate was 72.6% (185 infected out of 255 rats). Eighty two of 255 rats (32.2%) were infected with ectoparasites and 166 out of 255 (65.1%) with endoparasites. Among endoparasites the most frequent parasite was Hymenolepis diminuta (36.9%) and among ectoparasites Polyplax spinulosa (14.5%). Analysing association of parasite infection with sex, age and location (household and village) we found out that none of the found parasites was sex related. On the other hand, several parasite infections increased with age and depended on habitat. As accidental finding, study showed that rats with mites tended to be infected with fleas and rats with nematodes tended to be infected with cestodes.

Keywords: rat; endoparasites; ectoparasites; prevalence; risk factors

Published: March 31, 2004  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Stojcevic D, Mihaljevic Z, Marinculic A. Parasitological survey of rats in rural regions of Croatia. Vet Med-Czech. 2004;49(3):70-74. doi: 10.17221/5679-VETMED.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Abd el-Wahed M.M., Salem G.H., el-Assaly T.M. (1999): The role of wild rats as a reservoir of some internal parasites in Qalyobia governorate. J. Egypt. Soc. Parasitol., 29, 495-503.
    2. Acinboade O.A., Dipeolu O.O., Ogunji F.O., Adegoke G.O. (1981): The parasites obtained and bacteria isolated from house rats (Ra us ra us Linnaeus, 1758) caught in human habitations in Ibadan, Nigeria. Int. J. Zoonos., 8, 26-32.
    3. Ceruti R., Sonzogni O., Origgi F., Vezzoli F., Cammarata S., Giusti A.M., Scanziani E. (2001): Capillaria hepatica infection in wild brown rats (Ra us norvegicus) from the urban area of Milan, Italy. J. Vet. Med. B, 48, 235-240. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    4. Conlogue G., Foreyt W., Adess M., Levine H. (1979): Capillaria hepatica (Bancro) in select rat populations of Hartford, Connecticut, with possible public health implications. J. Parasitol., 65, 105-108. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    5. Davoust B., Boni M., Branquet D., Ducos de Lahi e J., Martet G. (1997): Research on three parasitic infestations in rats captured in Marseille: evaluation of the zoonotic risk. Bull. Nat. Acad. Med., 181, 887-897.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content