How Can Rodent-Borne Diseases Infect Humans?

What do you know about rodent-borne diseases? If you live in any part of the world except Antarctica, chances are you have had an encounter with these mammals at least once. Although they might look docile, popular species such as rats and mice are far from being harmless to be ignored. Not only can they cause a fair bit of damage to your home, property & office with their constant gnawing, but they can also cause some infectious diseases & serious health complications

Rodent borne diseases come in all shapes and sizes from bacteria-based illnesses such as salmonella to viruses such as hantavirus. These diseases are quite nasty and an inconvenient thing to contract. They are commonly transmitted by rats and mice, they can enter your home in search of food & shelter which will lead to an infestation.

How Can You Catch Rodent-Borne Diseases?

Once they have entered and infested your homes, then they can potentially spread several diseases. The various methods with which these diseases are transmitted are as follows:

1. Rodent Urine

When you have an infestation, especially mice and rats, their urine is the primary source of diseases. Rats and mice use their urine to map out a trail for their friends and family to a good food source. A key sign of mice is urine pillars. This is when the constant urination in one area, over a long period, mixes with the dirt to form pillars, resembling small stalactites.

How Can You Catch A Disease From Rodent Urine?

Rodent Borne-Diseases or RBD can be contracted by the following methods:

• Direct Contact: You can catch these diseases by coming into direct contact with their urine, this can be by touching it or touching something that has been contaminated. 
• Contaminated Food: This is contracted via contaminated food and water. This happens when a rat or mouse urinates on a food source or water supply. 
• Contaminated Air: You can also catch a rodent-borne disease from inhaling dust that has been contaminated by their urine.
• Open Wound: If you have an open wound or scratch, which isn’t properly dressed, then you could be at risk of catching an infection if your wound/scratch comes into contact with rodent urine.

Diseases You Can Catch From Rodent Urine

• Leptospirosis
• Weil’s disease
• Rat-bite fever
• Hantavirus

2. Rodent Faeces 

On top of urine, their faeces also harbour diseases. Mice will leave behind between 50 and 80 droppings a night, scattered randomly throughout an area they inhabit. You could potentially be at a high risk of contracting diseases if you have a large infestation.

How Can You Catch A Disease From Rodent Faeces?

Contamination

Just like urine, you can catch rodent-borne diseases from rat or mice faeces through contamination of the following:

• Food
• Air
• Water

This is a result of either defecating on/near a food and water source, or by their faeces mixing with the air.

Direct Contact

On top of contaminated food and air sources, faeces are also responsible for spreading diseases through direct contact. This can be done by:

• Touching their faeces
• Touching something which has come into contact with their faeces
• Exposing open wounds/scratches to rodent faeces

Diseases You Can Catch From Rodent Faeces

• Salmonella
• Typhoid
• Weil’s disease
• Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis
• Typhus
• Rat-bite fever
• Hantaviruses 
• Rat Tapeworm

3. Dead Rodents

A lot of the time, the diseases originate from the rodent itself (that’s how you can contact them by coming to contact with their urine and faeces). It is because of this that dead rodents can cause serious health risks to us.

How Can You Catch A Disease From A Dead Rodent?

The easiest way that humans can become infected is by touching it! We strongly advise that if you come across a dead rodent that you do not touch it. Once you have touched a dead rat or mouse, you can catch an RBD by touching open areas of your body such as mouth, nose and eyes, as well as touching any wounds or scratches.

If you have to touch a dead rat or mouse then you should always wear gloves and wash your hands thoroughly afterwards to prevent any infections from spreading. However, once again we strongly advise you not to touch it. If you need assistance in removing a dead rat or mouse then you should contact a pest control professional.

Diseases You Can Catch From A Dead Rodent

• Rat-bite fever
• Tularemia
• The plague
• Rabies

4. Rodent Bites

As previously discussed, the majority of the diseases originate from and lay dormant on the rodent’s themselves. This is why getting bitten by a rodent can lead to serious health problems.

How Can You Catch A Disease From A Rodent Bite?

The answer is simple. Saliva! When a rat bites you it pierces your skin, allowing the saliva of infected rodent (which carries the RBD) to enter your blood system. Resulting in humans contracting the disease.

Diseases You Can Catch From A Rodent Bite

• Rat-bite fever
• Tularemia
• Hantavirus
• Leptospirosis

5. Rodent Scratches

You can also catch an RBD from getting scratched by a rat, mouse or other rodents. They carry several diseases which can be transmitted to humans when their skin is penetrated from scratching. 

How can you catch a disease from a rodent scratch?

A scratch allows harmful infections, and diseases to spread through the opening in the skin. These infectious radicals get inside the bloodstream and spread to the body. 

Diseases You Can Catch From Rodent Scratches

• Rat-bite fever
• Weil’s disease
• Leptospirosis

How To Deal With Rodent Borne Diseases? 

Prevention is better than cure. The most effective solution to mouse infestations is to prevent them from gaining access to your property in the first place. In most cases, the cost to treat a pest infestation is more expensive than prevention. This philosophy does not limit to just an individual household but businesses need to take preventive measures as well to maintain its employee wellbeing & reputation. Hence, it’s recommended that you should contact a professional pest control service which can provide innovative pest control solution to help you prevent an infestation before it happens.  

Rentokil is the leader in pest control in Ireland for almost 90 years with specialised teams trained to handle such infestations. If you have an infestation in your home, then contact Rentokil today.