Tag Archives: rats

Just before the holidays, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released its annual report to veterinarians on an important infectious disease, leptospirosis. As a New York City veterinarian, this report concerns me, and pet owners should be concerned too. Following several years of declining infection numbers, cases ticked up in 2022, the latest year data was available. In total, there were 20 confirmed “lepto” cases in the five boroughs in 2022, up from 18 in 2021. (To see previous years’ reports, visit the NYC DOH website.) Leptospirosis causes kidney failure and elevated liver tests, which may require hemodialysis and may be fatal. This blogpost describes some important features of canine leptospirosis.

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

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.

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

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