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Description: A rodent
transmitted viral disease. Arenavirus infections are
relatively common in humans in some areas of the world
(not the United States) and can cause severe
illnesses. The arenaviruses are divided into two
groups: the New World or Tacaribe complex and the Old
World or LCM/Lassa complex.
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Cause: Disease caused
by many types of viruses belonging to the Arenaviridae.
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Incubation: period
varies with the type of viral infection.
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Symptoms:
Varies with the type of viral
infection.
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Diagnosis: By
physician.
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Treatment: Varies with
the type of viral infection. Supportive medical care
and management of fever is important.
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Mode of Transmission:
Contact with infected rodent
urine, droppings and nesting materials. Also by
stirring up - or aerosolizing - rodent urine and
droppings when cleaning contaminated areas. By
consumption of contaminated food or by direct contact
of broken skin with rodent excrement. Wild rodents
transmit this disease by contaminating food and drink
with their feces and urine.
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Description: A viral
disease that may be contracted through direct contact
with, or inhalation of, aerosolized infected rodent
urine, saliva, or droppings.
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Cause: Disease caused
by a virus found in the saliva, urine and droppings of
some species of wild rodents, especially deer mice.
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Incubation: period 1 to
5 weeks.
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Symptoms:
Fever, severe muscle aches,
fatigue. After a few days, difficulty breathing,
dizziness, chills, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach
pain.
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Diagnosis: By
physician.
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Treatment: Supportive
care by a physician.
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Mode of Transmission:
Contact with mouse urine,
droppings and nesting materials. Also by stirring up -
or aerosolizing - mouse urine and droppings when
cleaning contaminated areas.
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Description: A
bacterial disease that may be contracted through
contact with water or ingestion of food contaminated
with the urine of infected rats and mice. Also known
as Weil’s disease, Canicola Fever, Hemorrhagic
Jaundice, Mud Fever, Swinehard’s Disease.
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Cause: Disease caused
by a bacterial spirochete, Leptospira
icterohaemorhagiae.
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Incubation: period 4 to
19 days.
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Symptoms:
Fever, headache, chills, severe
malaise, vomiting. Occasionally meningitis, rash,
jaundice, anemia. Clinical illness can last up to
three weeks.
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Diagnosis: By physician
although laboratory tests difficult and not always
conclusive.
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Treatment: With
antibiotics.
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Mode of Transmission:
Ingestion of contaminated food
or water with the urine of rats and mice. Also
contact with water, soil and vegetation contaminated
with the urine of infected animals.
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Description: A viral
disease also known as LCM, Benign or Serous
Lymphocytic Meningitis.
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Cause: Disease caused
by a virus.
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Incubation: period 8 to
21 days.
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Symptoms:
Sometimes begins with flu-like
symptoms, sometimes begins with inflammation the brain
(encephalitis) or both the brain and the membrane that
surrounds the brain and spinal cord (meningoencephalomyelitis).
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Diagnosis: By physician
isolating virus from blood or cerebrospinal fluid.
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Treatment: Supportive
care (fluids and management of fever). Most cases
make a full recovery.
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Mode of Transmission:
From exposure to infected House
Mouse urine, feces and saliva.
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Description: A bacterial disease caused by
the bites of infected fleas. Also known as Flea-borne
typhus, Endemic typhus fever, Shop typhus.
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Cause: Caused by the
bacterium Rickettsia typhi.
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Incubation: period 1 to
2 weeks.
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Symptoms:
Headache, chills, fever, general
pain; spots/rash appear on the fifth or sixth day on
upper body and ultimately spread to all of body except
face, palms of hands and soles of feet.
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Diagnosis: By physician
with lab tests.
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Treatment: Antibiotics
and supportive care.
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Mode of Transmission:
By fleas associated with rats.
Rats are the reservoir for the bacterium. Fleas bite
both rats and humans. Infection in rats is not
apparent.
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Description: A
bacterial disease caused by the bites of infected
fleas. Can present itself as bubonic plague,
pneumonic plague or septicemic plague.
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Cause: Disease caused
by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
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Incubation: period 2 to
6 days.
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Symptoms:
Bubonic form:
Swollen tender lymph nodes, especially in/near the
groin area. Fever usually present.
Pneumonic form:
involves above symptoms but disease has progressed and
includes the lungs resulting in pneumonia. This form
is highly contagious being passed from person to
person through droplets of sputum when the infected
individual coughs.
Septicemic Form:
Plague in blood and being spread to all parts
of the body.
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Diagnosis: By physician
with lab tests.
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Treatment: Antibiotics
and supportive care.
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Mode of Transmission:
From the bites of infected
fleas. Various rodents (squirrels, chipmunks, rats,
etc.) are the natural reservoir for the bacterium.
Fleas of rodents bite humans when sufficient rodent
hosts are no longer available.
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Description: A
bacterial disease that can be contracted from the bite
of a rat or mouse. Rat Bite Fever is also known as
Streptobacillary Fever or Spirillary Fever.
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Cause: Streptobacillary
fever is caused by the bacterium Streptobacillus
moniliformis. Spirillary Fever caused by the
bacterium Spirillum minor.
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Incubation: period 1 to
3 weeks for Spirillary Fever; 3 to 10 days, rarely
longer, for Streptobacillary Fever, following a
history of a rat or mouse bite, which has normally
healed.
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Symptoms:
Abrupt onset of fever, chills,
headache and muscle pain. Later followed by a rash
which is most pronounced on the extremities. One or
more large joints then become red, swollen and
painful.
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Diagnosis: By physician
and lab cultures using blood, lymph or joint fluid
samples.
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Treatment: Antibiotics,
without treatment fatality rate is 7 - 10%.
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Mode of Transmission:
Usually following a bite from an
infected rat or mouse.
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Description: A
bacterial food poisoning that may be transmitted when
rodents contaminate food by contact with their own
feces or urine.
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Cause: Disease caused
by a Salmonella spp. bacteria, especially
Salmonella typhimurium.
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Incubation: period 6 to
72 hours.
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Symptoms:
Sudden onset of headache, acute
abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, sometimes vomiting,
fever. Potential for dehydration especially in
children.
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Susceptibility:
Children are the most susceptible to the virus.
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Diagnosis: By
physician.
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Treatment: With
antibiotics.
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Mode of Transmission:
By consumption of contaminated
food or water or poorly cooked foods. Domestic pets
and wild rodents (rats/mice) can also be carriers of
this disease. Wild rodents transmit this disease by
contaminating food and drink with their feces and
urine.
PIGEON-BORNE
DISEASES
More than 60
transmissible bird diseases (some of which are
fatal) are associated with geese, pigeons, starlings
and house sparrows. Here are some of the more
severe.
Histoplasmosis is caused by a
fungus (Histoplasma capsulatum) found
primarily in the areas drained by the Mississippi
and Ohio rivers. Both humans and animals can be
affected. The disease is transmitted to humans by
airborne fungus spores from soil contaminated by
pigeon and starling droppings (as well as from the
droppings of other birds and bats). The soil under a
roost usually has to have been enriched by droppings
for two years or more for the disease organism to
reach significant levels. Although almost always
associated with soil, the fungus has been found in
droppings (particularly from bats) alone, such as in
an attic.
Mode of Transmission:
Infection occurs when spores,
carried by the air are inhaled — especially after a
roost has been disturbed. Most infections are mild
and produce either no symptoms or a minor influenza-
like illness. On occasion, the disease can cause
high fever, blood abnormalities, pneumonia and even
death. In some areas, including portions of
Illinois, up to 80 percent of the population show
evidence of previous infection. Outbreaks of
histoplasmosis have occurred in Central Illinois.
The National Institutes of
Health (NIH) has reported a potentially blinding eye
condition — presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome
(OHS) — that probably results from the fungus. NIH
estimates that 4 percent of those exposed to the
disease are at risk of developing OHS.
Cryptococcosis
Pigeon droppings appear to
be the most important source of the disease fungus
Cryptococcus neoformans in the environment. The
fungus is typically found in accumulations of
droppings around roosting and nesting sites, for
example, attics, cupolas, ledges and water towers.
It has been found in as many as 84 percent of
samples taken from old roosts. Even when old and
dry, bird droppings can be a significant source of
infection.
Mode of
Transmission:
Like histoplasmosis, most cryptococcosis
infections are mild and may be without symptoms.
Persons with weakened immune systems, however, are
more susceptible to infection. The disease is
acquired by inhaling the yeast-like cells of the
organism. Two forms of cryptococcosis occur in
humans. The generalized form begins with a lung
infection and spreads to other areas of the body,
particularly the central nervous system, and is
usually fatal unless treated. The cutaneous (skin)
form is characterized by acne-like skin eruptions or
ulcers with nodules just under the skin. The
cutaneous form is very rare, however, without
generalized (systemic) disease. Outbreaks (multiple
cases at a location) of cryptococcosis infections
have not been documented.
Candidiasis
is a yeast or fungus infection spread by pigeons.
The disease affects the skin, the mouth, the
respiratory system, the intestines and the
urogenital tract, especially the vagina. It is a
growing problem for women, causing itching, pain and
discharge.
St. Louis
Encephalitis,
an inflammation of the nervous system, usually
causes drowsiness, headache and fever. It may even
result in paralysis, coma or death. St. Louis
encephalitis occurs in all age groups, but is
especially fatal to persons over age 60. The disease
is spread by mosquitoes which have fed on infected
house sparrow, pigeons and house finches carrying
the Group B virus responsible for St. Louis
encephalitis.
Salmonellosis
often occurs as "food poisoning" and can be traced
to pigeons, starlings and sparrows. The disease
bacteria are found in bird droppings; dust from
droppings can be sucked through ventilators and air
conditioners, contaminating food and cooking
surfaces in restaurants, homes and food processing
plants.
E.coli.
Cattle carry E. coli 0157:H7. When birds peck on cow
manure, the E. coli go right through the birds and
the bird droppings can land on or in a food or water
supply.
Besides being direct
carriers of disease, nuisance birds are frequently
associated with over 50 kinds of ectoparasites,
which can work their way throughout structures to
infest and bite humans. About two-thirds of these
pests may be detrimental to the general health and
well-being of humans and domestic animals. The rest
are considered nuisance or incidental pests. A few
examples of ectoparasites include:
Bed bugs
(Cimex lectularius) may consume up to five times
their own weight in blood drawn from hosts which
include humans and some domestic animals. In any
extreme condition, victims may become weak and
anemic. Pigeons, starlings and house sparrows are
known to carry bed bugs.
Chicken mites
(Dermanyssus gallinae) are known carriers of
encephalitis and may also cause fowl mite dermatitis
and acariasis. While they subsist on blood drawn
from a variety of birds, they may also attack
humans. They have been found on pigeons, starlings
and house sparrows.
Yellow mealworms
(Tenebrio molitor), perhaps the most common beetle
parasites of people in the United States, live in
pigeon nests. It is found in grain or grain
products, often winding up in breakfast cereals, and
may cause intestinal canthariasis and
hymenolespiasis.
West Nile Virus
while West Nile is technically not transmitted to
humans from birds, humans can get infected by the
bite of a mosquito who has bitten an infected bird.
The obvious lesson is that the fewer birds there are
in any given area, the better. This translates into
a smaller chance of an infected bird in that area, a
smaller chance of a mosquito biting an infected bird
and then biting a human
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