Occurrence of some zoonotic microorganisms in fAecal matter of house rat (Rattus
rattus) and house mouse (Mus musculus)
trapped from various structures
M. Mushtaq-ul-Hassan,
I.
Hussain1, B. Shehzadi, M. Shaheen, M. S. Mahmood1, A.
Rafique2 and M. Mahmood-ul-Hassan3
Department of Zoology, GC University, Faisalabad;
1Department of
Microbiology, and 2Department of Zoology and Fisheries,
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad; 3Department of Ecology and
Wildlife, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan
Abstract
Commensal as well as wild rats and mice may play an important role as carriers
or reservoirs for microorganisms that can be transmitted either through contact
with infected rodent urine or faeces, or through ectoparasites. Prevalence of
zoonotic microorganism in house rat (Rattus
rattus) and house mouse (Mus musculus)
in different types of structures such as grocery shops, sweet shops, rice
godowns, wheat godowns and poultry feed stores was studied in Sargodha and
Faisalabad districts of Pakistan. In R.
rattus, E. coli showed the highest
prevalenc in faecal material from rice godowns (4.72%), while the lowest
prevalence (3.46%) was in poultry feed stores (P<0.05).
S. typhi had the higest prevalence
(4.44%) in samples from grocery shops and lowest (3.56%) in those from sweet
shops (P<0.05). Similarly, the highest prevalence of
H. nana (3.89%) was recorded in faeces
from grocery shops and lowest in those from poultry feed stores (P<0.05). In
case of Mus musculus, rats from sweet
shops showed the highest prevalence of E.
coli (4.83%), while the lowest was in rats from wheat godowns (4.05%;
P<0.05). S. typhi had the highest
prevalence (4.56%) in grocery shops and lowest (3.28%) in sweet shops (P<0.05).
For H. nana, the highest prevalence
(3.61%) was noted in samples from rice godowns and lowest (3.00%) in sweet shops
(P<0.05). Fecal samples of R. rattus
and Mus musculus of all the structures of Sargodha district were
significantly more infected with E. coli,
S. typhi and
H. nana compared with the samples collected from the structures of
district Faisalabad (P<0.05).These
results indicated that both house rat and house mouse may act as reservoir for
E. coli, S. typhi and
H. nana.
Key words:
House rat, house mouse, E. coli, S. typhi, H. nana,
faecal sample.