Bull World Health Organ. 1961;24(1):23-34.
In a previous paper the authors reported on the methods and zoogeographical background of a survey of animal leptospirosis in Malaya, giving a broad analysis of results. In the present paper the localities studied in towns and villages, in ricefields, in secondary forest and scrub and in primary forest are compared in detail. In towns and villages infection rates in rats were low, except in a seaport town where the invading R. norvegicus was heavily infected. In ricefields infection is maintained in R. argentiventer, alone or in association with R. exulans. In secondary forest and scrub there is overlap with forest species and the main hosts of leptospires appear to be R. exulans and R. jalorensis. In primary forest giant rats and, to a lesser degree, spiny rats are the main hosts.Ground-living rats appear to be better maintenance hosts than those scrambling on vegetation or arboreal rats. With some exceptions the incidence of infection of a rat species in an area was found to be in direct relation to the proportion that species formed of the total rat population. The critical number of rats for maintenance of leptospirosis in an area is estimated to be about two rats of the maintenance species per hectare.
在之前的一篇论文中，作者报告了马来亚动物钩端螺旋体病调查的方法和动物地理学背景，并对结果进行了广泛的分析。在本文中，详细比较了在城镇和村庄、稻田、次生林和灌丛以及原始森林中研究的地点。在城镇和村庄，除了一个海港城镇外，入侵的 R. norvegicus 受到严重感染，老鼠的感染率较低。在稻田中，感染 R. argentiventer 单独或与 R. exulans 一起维持。在次生林和灌丛中，与森林物种重叠，钩端螺旋体的主要宿主似乎是 R. exulans 和 R. jalorensis。在原始森林中，巨鼠和较小程度的刺鼠是主要宿主。与一些例外情况一样，在一个地区，一个鼠种的感染发生率与该种在总鼠群中所占的比例直接相关。估计在一个地区维持钩端螺旋体病的临界鼠数约为每公顷维持物种的两只老鼠。
