Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:22:21.140Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The relationship of field rodents to plague in Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

J. I. Roberts
J. I. Roberts
Affiliation:
Medical Research Laboratory, Nairobi
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

1. A study of the literature of East Africa on the incidence of plague in field rodents shows that in no single instance has evidence been offered to prove they have any relation to the disease.

2. Recent epizootics in field rats in Kenya are described.

3. The health of house and field rats is discussed, with an account of the work carried out on a septicaemic condition present in field rats.

4. The results of bacteriological examination of 2750 field rats and attempted transmission experiments with 1285 field fleas, both investigations conducted during a period when there was heavy mortality among them, failed to establish the presence of B. pestis.

At the same time, mortality among the Rattus population, proved bacteriologically to have been caused by B. pestis, enabled successful transmissions to be accomplished with fleas from that species.

5. In the absence of any confirmatory bacteriological evidence to prove that epizootics among field rats are caused by B. pestis, and the failure to find natural infection among field fleas, together with the knowledge of their aversion to feed on man and lack of opportunity to develop such tastes, the theories that field rodents and their fleas “are definitely assisting in the perpetuation and spread of plague” or that they “ are possible factors in initial outbreaks of plague” (Thornton, 1930) appear to be fallacious.

6. Plague in Kenya is distinguished by its isolated and sporadic nature, even in endemic areas, and it is not dependent on types of housing or the general hygiene of inhabited areas, but on individual domestic habits. Any individual, neglectful in regard to food, particularly its storage and wastage, is the person responsible for the disease, by offering an unlimited supply of food to a dense rat population and encouraging its survival.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , May 1939 , pp. 334 - 344
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1939

References

REFERENCES

Baker, C. J. (1921). Rats in Uganda and their relation to plague. Ann. Med. Rep. Uganda.Google Scholar
Daubney, R. & Hudson, J. R. (1931). Enzootic hepatitis or Rift Valley fever. J. Path. Bact. 34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Findlay, G. M. (1932). Rift Valley fever or enzootic hepatitis. Trans. R. Soc. trop. Med. Hyg. 25, 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, J. A., Pirie, J. H. H. & Ingram, A. (1927). The plague problem in South Africa. S.A. Inst. med. Res. 3, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Roberts, J. I. (1935). The endemicity of plague in East Africa. E. Afr. med. J. 11, 7.Google Scholar
Symes, C. B. (1932). Notes on rats, fleas and plague in Kenya. Rec. Med. Res. Lab. Nairobi, no. 3. Nairobi.Google Scholar
Symes, C. B. & Hopkins, G. H. E. (1932). Notes of fleas, rats and other hosts in Kenya. Rec. Med. Res. Lab. Nairobi, no. 1.Google Scholar
Thornton, E. (1930). Report of Investigation into Plague in Protectorate of Uganda. Entebbe: Govt. Press.Google Scholar