Centre for Infectious diseases, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Gelderland, the Netherlands.
Centre for Infectious diseases, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Oct 20;896:165069. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165069. Epub 2023 Jun 29.
Urban greening has benefits for both human and environmental health. However, urban greening might also have negative effects as the abundance of wild rats, which can host and spread a great diversity of zoonotic pathogens, increases with urban greenness. Studies on the effect of urban greening on rat-borne zoonotic pathogens are currently unavailable. Therefore, we investigated how urban greenness is associated with rat-borne zoonotic pathogen prevalence and diversity, and translated this to human disease hazard. We screened 412 wild rats (Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus) from three cities in the Netherlands for 18 different zoonotic pathogens: Bartonella spp., Leptospira spp., Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp., Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Spiroplasma spp., Streptobacillus moniliformis, Coxiella burnetii, Salmonella spp., methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)/AmpC-producing Escherichia coli, rat hepatitis E virus (ratHEV), Seoul orthohantavirus, Cowpox virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), Toxoplasma gondii and Babesia spp. We modelled the relationships between pathogen prevalence and diversity and urban greenness. We detected 13 different zoonotic pathogens. Rats from greener urban areas had a significantly higher prevalence of Bartonella spp. and Borrelia spp., and a significantly lower prevalence of ESBL/AmpC-producing E. coli and ratHEV. Rat age was positively correlated with pathogen diversity while greenness was not related to pathogen diversity. Additionally, Bartonella spp. occurrence was positively correlated with that of Leptospira spp., Borrelia spp. and Rickettsia spp., and Borrelia spp. occurrence was also positively correlated with that of Rickettsia spp. Our results show an increased rat-borne zoonotic disease hazard in greener urban areas, which for most pathogens was driven by the increase in rat abundance rather than pathogen prevalence. This highlights the importance of keeping rat densities low and investigating the effects of urban greening on the exposure to zoonotic pathogens in order to make informed decisions and to take appropriate countermeasures preventing zoonotic diseases.
城市绿化对人类和环境健康都有益处。然而，随着城市绿化程度的提高，野生鼠类的数量也会增加，而这些老鼠可能会携带和传播多种人畜共患病病原体。目前，关于城市绿化对鼠类携带的人畜共患病病原体的影响的研究还很缺乏。因此，我们调查了城市绿化与鼠类携带的人畜共患病病原体的流行率和多样性之间的关系，并将其转化为人类疾病的危害。我们从荷兰的三个城市筛选了 412 只野生鼠（挪威鼠和褐家鼠），检测了 18 种不同的人畜共患病病原体：巴尔通体属、钩端螺旋体属、伯氏疏螺旋体、立克次体属、嗜吞噬细胞无形体、新立克次体、螺旋体属、念珠状链杆菌、贝氏柯克斯体、沙门氏菌、耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌（MRSA）、产超广谱β-内酰胺酶（ESBL）/AmpC 型大肠埃希菌、鼠型肝炎病毒（ratHEV）、首尔乙型出血热病毒、牛痘病毒、严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）、刚地弓形虫和巴贝斯虫。我们建立了模型，以研究病原体流行率和多样性与城市绿化之间的关系。我们检测到 13 种不同的人畜共患病病原体。来自绿化程度较高的城市的老鼠，巴尔通体属和伯氏疏螺旋体的流行率显著较高，而产 ESBL/AmpC 型大肠埃希菌和 ratHEV 的流行率显著较低。老鼠的年龄与病原体多样性呈正相关，而绿化程度与病原体多样性无关。此外，巴尔通体属的出现与钩端螺旋体属、伯氏疏螺旋体和立克次体属的出现呈正相关，而伯氏疏螺旋体的出现也与立克次体属的出现呈正相关。我们的研究结果表明，在绿化程度较高的城市中，鼠类携带的人畜共患病的危险增加了，这在大多数情况下是由于老鼠数量的增加，而不是病原体的流行率。这突显了保持较低的鼠密度并调查城市绿化对接触人畜共患病病原体的影响的重要性，以便做出明智的决策并采取适当的对策来预防人畜共患病。
