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Article: THE MORE DEATH-SPREADING RODENTS THE BETTER? COMPUTER MODELING OF BUBONIC PLAGUE TRANSMISSION CHALLENGES CENTURY-OLD RAT- CULLING WISDOM.
- Article from:
- BIOWORLD Today
- Article date:
- October 19, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 A Thomson Healthcare Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The common rat (genus Rattus) is said to be so prescient that it will jump ship when it senses that its floating habitat is about to sink. If that rodent is infected with bubonic plague, its foresighted departure does no favor to the human passengers it leaves behind. Their odds of acquiring the infection go up, not down.
This counterintuitive statement has a simple explanation: As that rat goes over the side, the dozen or so rat fleas (Xenopsylla cheopsis) that have been battening on its blood hop off their furry meal ticket and seek out the next-best warm-blooded mammal - Homo sapiens. A single bite from one plague-infected flea can deliver up to 24,000 ...