Conservation Medicine, Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
Unité Mixte de Services (UMS) 2006 Patrimoine Naturel, Office Français pour la Biodiversité (OFB), Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Paris, France.
Parasitol Res. 2020 Aug;119(8):2383-2397. doi: 10.1007/s00436-020-06776-3. Epub 2020 Jun 30.
Although black (Rattus rattus) and brown (Rattus norvegicus) rats are among the most widespread synanthropic wild rodents, there is a surprising scarcity of knowledge about their ecology in the urban ecosystem. In particular, relatively few studies have investigated their helminth species diversity in such habitat. We followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) guideline to synthesize the existing published literature regarding the helminth fauna of urban rats in developed countries (North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan). We aimed at describing the species diversity and richness of urban rat helminths, the species prevalence and associations, the methods of investigation, the pathological changes observed in the hosts, the risk factors of infection and the public health significance of rat-borne helminthiases. Twenty-three scientific papers published between 1946 and 2019 were reviewed, half of them were conducted in Europe. Twenty-five helminth species and eight genera were described from the liver, digestive tract, lungs and muscles of urban rats. The most commonly reported parasite was Calodium hepaticum. Prevalence and risk factors of helminth infection in urban rats varied greatly between studies. Observed pathological findings in the rat host were generally minor, except for C. hepaticum. Several rat helminths can parasitize humans and are therefore of public health significance. The lack of references to identification keys and the rare use of molecular tools for species confirmation represent the main limitation of these studies. Knowledge gap on this topic and the needs for future research are discussed.
尽管黑鼠（Rattus rattus）和褐家鼠（Rattus norvegicus）是分布最广泛的两种群居野鼠，但它们在城市生态系统中的生态学知识却出人意料地匮乏。特别是，在这种栖息地中，相对较少的研究调查了它们的寄生虫物种多样性。我们遵循 PRISMA（系统评价和荟萃分析的首选报告项目）准则，综合了已发表的关于发达国家（北美、欧洲、澳大利亚、新西兰和日本）城市鼠类寄生虫区系的现有文献。我们旨在描述城市鼠类寄生虫的物种多样性和丰富度、物种流行率和关联、调查方法、宿主中观察到的病理变化、感染的危险因素以及鼠类寄生虫病的公共卫生意义。我们回顾了 1946 年至 2019 年间发表的 23 篇科学论文，其中一半是在欧洲进行的。从城市鼠的肝脏、消化道、肺和肌肉中描述了 25 种寄生虫和 8 个属。报告最常见的寄生虫是肝毛细线虫（Calodium hepaticum）。城市鼠寄生虫感染的流行率和危险因素在不同研究中差异很大。在鼠宿主中观察到的病理发现通常较小，肝毛细线虫（Calodium hepaticum）除外。几种鼠寄生虫可以寄生人体，因此具有公共卫生意义。这些研究的主要局限性是缺乏鉴定关键的参考文献和很少使用分子工具来确认物种。我们讨论了在这个主题上的知识差距和未来研究的需求。
