Although it is sometimes considered a pet, the rat is best known for being a vector of disease. Leptospirosis, hantavirosis, salmonellosis… These zoonoses are transmitted to humans via urine, saliva or even rat feces.
According to a recent study conducted by researchers from the Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD), rats could harbor many other pathogens which, if transmitted to humans, could be the cause potentially serious new infectious diseases.
Between 2006 and 2018, the researchers (who published their work in the specialized journal Microbiome) collected lung tissue samples from 3,284 rats in Thailand, then studied the DNA of the viruses spotted in the samples.
“We have discovered new viruses, potential sources of infectious diseases”
“We have found viruses already known, including hantaviruses, mammarenaviruses or coronaviruses“explained Serge Morand, health ecologist at CIRAD and co-author of this work to our colleagues at Parisian. “But we have also discovered new viruses, potential sources of infectious diseases for humans.“
Problem : as the researchers explain, in Southeast Asia, wild rats are herded together. Indeed, certain species of rats (rice paddy rats, in particular) are appreciated for their meat and rodents, stressed by captivity, have an insufficient immune response to fight against viruses. In addition, local farms are often “family[aux] and small in size, are carried out in poor sanitary and ethical conditions, and do not benefit from the necessary veterinary follow-up” add the scientists. The ideal cocktail to promote the emergence of new zoonoses… and perhaps new global epidemics.
The researchers are therefore sounding the alarm bell and recalling that the SARS epidemic in 2002, “should have served as an example [mais] nothasn’t stopped the recent boom in wildlife farms in Southeast Asia“. The infectious agent at the origin of SARS had in fact passed from bats to humans via the civet, a small rodent.
Source: The ParisianThursday, February 4, 2021.
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