There is another side to the realities of life in New York City aside from the glamorized lives of the rich and famous. A great deal of poverty and associated filthy living conditions where rats thrive also exists in New York City. These rats are loaded with disease-carrying fleas reports Cornell University via EurekAlert. This is the first study of this nature since the 1920s and it has shown that rats thriving in New York City carry a flea species which is capable of transmitting plague pathogens.
Lead author Matthew Frye, who is an urban entomologist with Cornell University’s New York State Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program, reported that he collected more than 6,500 specimens of five species of fleas which are well known, lice and mites from 133 New York City rats. Frye found over five hundred Oriental rat fleas in these specimens. Oriental rat fleas are notorious for their role in the transmission of the bubonic plague, which is also known as the Black Death.
It was noted that the pathogens found can cause a wide range of clinical syndromes, some of which are very severe. It has been suggested by the results of the study that public health officials should closely monitor city rats and the fleas which makes these rats their homes. And everyone should help implement IPM practices by removing food and water and preventing access to shelter in order to help break down rodent infestations.
This study has been published in the Journal of Medical Entomology. Researchers have said the Norway rat is a reservoir of many zoonotic pathogens. These rats live in close proximity to people in urban environments. A diverse and abundant ectoparasitic arthropod species along with associated pathogenic bacteria from Norway rats is found in New York City. The problem of rodents in New York City and elsewhere is therefore very serious and should be confronted aggressively.
