Zoonotic Pathogens Associated with Pet and Feeder Murid Rodent Species: A Global Systematic Review.

Pet and feeder rodents are one of the main sources of emerging infectious diseases. These rodents are purchased from pet shops, breeders, and online. Consequently, some of these rodents may subtly transmit diseases as they may be asymptomatic to certain pathogens.

Haemoplasma Prevalence and Diversity in Three Invasive Species from Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Invasive Rattus species are carriers of haemotropic Mycoplasmas (haemoplasmas) globally, but data from Africa are lacking. Using a PCR-sequencing approach, we assessed haemoplasma prevalence and diversity in kidney and buccal swabs collected from three invasive Rattus species (Rattus rattus, R. norvegicus and R.

Prevalence and Diversity of the Rat-bite Fever Agent, in Three Invasive, Commensal Species from South Africa.

Rat-bite fever is an over-looked, global zoonotic disease that has a mortality rate of up to 13%, if untreated. Historically, this rat-borne disease has been attributed to one of two causative agents, or . Given the confirmed presence of multiple invasive host species, high rat densities in urban, informal human settlements and increasing reports of rat bites in South Africa, we undertook a retrospective assessment of in rats sampled from 16 urban sites, in Gauteng, the smallest but most populous Province in South Africa.

Geospatial Modelling and Univariate Analysis of Commensal Rodent-Borne Cestodoses: The Case of Invasive spp. of and Indigenous From South Africa.

Poor socio-economic and unsanitary conditions are conducive to commensal rodent infestations, and these conditions are widespread in South Africa. Cestode species of zoonotic interest are highly prevalent in commensal rodents, such as invasive , and indigenous , and have been frequently recovered from human stool samples. These cestode species have similar transmission dynamics to traditional soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), which ties them to infections associated with poverty and poor sanitation.

The influence of distance to perennial surface water on ant communities in Mopane woodlands, northern Botswana.

Studies of biodiversity along environmental gradients provide information on how ecological communities change in response to biotic and abiotic factors. For instance, distance to water is associated with several factors that shape the structure and the functioning of ecosystems at a range of spatial scales. We investigated the influence of distance to a perennial water source on ant communities in a semi-arid savanna in northern Botswana.