Medical Carmen Jane Booth, D.V.M., Ph.D. Rat Bite Fever Amy, e-mail I just wanted to pass on the story of my 7-year-old daughter who had a pet rat and came down with rat bite fever. We had never heard of this disease, and didn’t know it was a risk with rats. This is a rare disease in the US, but is still a risk. My daughter was never bitten or scratched by her rat, it was just from contact. The bacteria (Streptobacillus moniliformis) that causes rat bite fever is normal in rat urine, feces, and saliva (other rodents also, but usually not in as high concentrations). This was not a sick rat. From what we were told some rats can have higher concentrations than others. She was hospitalized for 8 days with rash, high fevers, sepsis, and hip infection. She now has a PICC line at home and is getting continuous IV penicillin for the next 3 weeks. She has never been sick, does not have a compromised immune system, and has been around numerous different animals since birth as we live on a farm. So she had nothing that put her at high risk to get an infection. Rat owners should know that this is a risk, especially with children who are not as good at hand washing after contact. They should also know the symptoms of rat bite fever in case they come down with it. Again this is a rare disease, but it can happen. Also because it is rare it is harder to diagnose. I agree rats make wonderful pets, but it would have been nice to know about this disease before we owned one. Reply by Carmen Jane Booth, D.V.M., Ph.D. Rat Bite Fever (RBF) Information summarized from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website: cdc.gov/rat-bite-fever/ Agent The agent responsible for the clinical disease referred to as “Rat Bite Fever” depends upon where you live in the world. In the United States the primary etiology (cause) is the bacterium, Streptobacillus monliformis. In Africa and Asia the primary etiology is the bacterium, Spirillum minus. These bacteria are Gram-negative. RBF is very uncommon in the US and not a reportable disease. That means that physicians are not required to report human cases to the CDC. Transmission RBF is transmitted from infected rodents to humans by a bite, scratch, or from ingestion of food or water contaminated by rodent droppings. The disease is called Haverhill fever when contracted through ingestion of contaminated food or water. In addition to rats, infected mice and gerbils can transmit the disease. RBF is not transmitted through contact with infected humans. Although not common in the pet rats, there have been recent reports of humans infected from pet rats.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 08:08:05 +0000
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