Flea Presence and Abundance Are not Predictors of Carriage in Norway Rats () from an Underserved Neighborhood of Vancouver, Canada.

Urban Norway rats () carry pathogenic spp. that are transmitted among rats and from rats to people through arthropod vectors, particularly fleas. There is marked temporospatial variation in spp. carriage among Norway rats in Vancouver, Canada, and we investigated whether this variation is associated with flea presence or abundance. was isolated from 96/370 (35%) rats and 211 (57%) rats had fleas with an average of one flea per rat. All fleas were identified as . There was no significant relationship between carriage and flea presence or abundance, suggesting that, in contrast to other rat-associated zoonoses transmitted by fleas (, ) flea indices may not be informative for understanding the ecology of spp. in rats, particularly for .