It’s been all over the news in 2021: rat sightings are way up in New York City. While there’s plenty of speculation why, one thing is clear: increased interaction between rats and dogs is not good for the health of our fur families. Rats carry diseases that can be deadly to both dogs and humans,
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Leptospirosis made the news last week when the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported a cluster of three human cases had been identified in the Bronx. One infection was fatal. In the case of the Bronx residents, the specific type of Leptospira typically occurs in rats and a rat infestation is
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Historians believe rats arrived in the new world as stowaways on the sailing ships of explorers like Christopher Columbus. These “colonist” rats brought diseases such a plague and typhus. A recently published study of rats in New York City “rats” on the veritable Noah’s Ark of organisms infecting these ubiquitous pests. Scientists ratting on the
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The recent report of a 10-year-old boy that died from rat-bite fever in San Diego has raised concerns about the risk of contracting this disease from pet rats. The family of the child is suing Petco, where they bought a pet rat two weeks before the boy died after a 48-hour illness characterized by flu-like
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