For birds and humans: challenges and benefits of rat eradication from an inhabited island (Ventotene, central Italy).

Background: Rat eradication from islands is a very effective tool that can free entire ecosystems from the pressure of alien predators. In this study we present the case study of Ventotene (Ponziane Archipelago, central Italy), which to date is the island with by far the greatest number of human inhabitants ever freed from the negative implications of rats. Rat eradication was carried out in the framework of the Life PonDerat project, co-financed by the European Union.

A new real-time PCR method for the identification of three sibling species (, , and ) in Italy.

The identification of field mice , and represents a challenge for field scientists due to their highly overlapping morphological traits and habitats. Here, we propose a new real-time PCR method to discriminate the three species by species-specific TaqMan assays. Primers and probes were designed based on the alignment of 54 partial sequences from 25 different European countries retrieved from GenBank.

Serological Survey of Hantavirus and Flavivirus Among Wild Rodents in Central Italy.

Hantaviruses are a group of zoonotic viruses carried by rodents. Puumala virus (PUUV) and Dobrava virus (DOBV) are the causative agents of human hantavirus infections in Europe. Knowledge about hantavirus circulation in Italy is very scarce.

Detection of Lyme Disease and Q Fever Agents in Wild Rodents in Central Italy.

The maintenance of tick-borne disease agents in the environment strictly depends on the relationship between tick vectors and their hosts, which act as reservoirs for these pathogens. A pilot study aimed to investigate wild rodents as reservoirs for zoonotic tick-borne pathogens (Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.