Rodents, Pathogens and Zoonotic Diseases

Rodents

BioRodDis focuses on the Muroidea superfamily of the Rodentia taxonomic order. We trap commensal species : the house mouse Mus musculus and the brown rat Rattus norvegicus, as well as Apodemus species from the Muridae taxonomic family, voles, including Microtus species and Myodes glareolus from the Cricetidae taxonomic family, and the dormouse Glis glis from the Gliridae family. We release protected species, including squirrels Sciurus vulgaris from the Sciuridae taxonomic family.

Zoonotic Pathogens

Bacteria : They are detected by a combination of specific (qPCR) and non specific (16S-V4 high throughput sequencing) molecular approaches. Up to now, we have detected tick-borne bacteria (Anaplasma sp, Neoehrlichia sp, Borrelia sp, Orientia sp, Spiroplasma sp), other vector-borne bacteria (Bartonella sp) and bacteria transmitted by the environment (Leptospira sp, Salmonella sp).

Viruses : They are detected by a combination of serology and molecular sequencing. In a first step, we focus on four taxonomic genus : Orthohantavirus, Orthopoxvirus, Mammarenavirus and Coronavirus.

_{Orthopoxvirus detection using Immunofluorescence array in Helsinki @m_grzybek}

Protozoa : They are detected by a combination of molecular and morphological identification (Babesia, Gardia, Cryptosporidium).

_{Babesia detection, @m_grzybek}

Zoonoses

Detailed information of the diseases that can be caused by these zoonotic pathogens can be found on the CDC website :

https://www.cdc.gov/