Leptospirosis risk increases with changes in species composition of rat populations.

Jörn Theuerkauf 1, * Julie Perez 2 Alefosio Taugamoa 3 Iasinito Niutoua 3 Didier Labrousse 3 Roman Gula 1 Wieslaw Bogdanowicz 1 Hervé Jourdan 4 Cyrille Goarant 2
* Corresponding author
1 Museum and Institute of Zoology
2 Institut Pasteur de Nouvelle-Calédonie
3 Service Territorial de l'Environnement
4 IRD [Nouvelle-Calédonie] - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
Abstract : Rats are major reservoirs of leptospirosis and considered as a main threat to biodiversity. A recent introduction of Rattus rattus to the island of Futuna (Western Polynesia) provided the opportunity to test if a possible change in species composition of rat populations would increase the risk of leptospirosis to humans. We trapped rodents on Wallis and Futuna and assessed Leptospira carriage in 357 rodents (Rattus norvegicus, R. rattus, Rattus exulans, and Mus domesticus) from 2008 to 2012. While Leptospira prevalence in rodents and the composition of rat populations on Futuna fluctuated with rainfall, the biomass of Leptospira-carrying rodents has been continuously rising from 2008 to 2012. Our results suggest that the introduction of R. rattus increases the risk to humans being infected with leptospirosis by rats.
Keywords : Invasive species Leptospira Population dynamics Rattus
Document type :
Journal articles
Complete list of metadatas

Cited literature [14 references]  Display  Hide  Download
https://hal-riip.archives-ouvertes.fr/pasteur-00812307
Contributor : Cyrille Goarant <>
Submitted on : Friday, April 12, 2013 - 12:09:19 AM
Last modification on : Wednesday, July 31, 2019 - 4:54:15 PM
Long-term archiving on : Monday, April 3, 2017 - 4:27:47 AM

File

2227.pdf
Publisher files allowed on an open archive

Identifiers

Collections

RIIP_NOUVELLECALEDONIE | RIIP | IRD

Citation

Jörn Theuerkauf, Julie Perez, Alefosio Taugamoa, Iasinito Niutoua, Didier Labrousse, et al.. Leptospirosis risk increases with changes in species composition of rat populations.. The Science of Nature Naturwissenschaften, Springer Verlag, 2013, 100 (4), pp.385-8. ⟨10.1007/s00114-013-1033-6⟩. ⟨pasteur-00812307⟩

Export

BibTeX TEI DC DCterms EndNote

Share

Metrics

Record views

318

Files downloads

327

Contact

support.ccsd.cnrs.fr
hal.support@ccsd.cnrs.fr
Logo CCSD