Mackenzie R B
Bull World Health Organ. 1972;47(2):161-9.
Indigenous South American rodents are abundant, varied, and adaptable, and occupy most of the available natural habitats. Knowledge of their taxonomy and biology is generally superficial. Near human habitations the introduced Rattus and Mus are common and their contacts with man are often close. Cities in South America are expanding to keep pace with increases in the human population and hitherto virgin land is being settled or cleared for food production. Thus domestic rodents are brought into contact with indigenous species and the inevitable exchange of parasites may then produce unpredictable threats to human health. The role of both wild and domestic rodents in the transmission of certain infectious diseases, such as plague, sylvatic Venezuelan encephalitis, South American haemorrhagic fevers, murine typhus, and cutaneous leishmaniasis, is well established. The involvement of rodents in some other diseases, such as leptospirosis, American trypanosomiasis, South American hydatid disease, and vesicular stomatitis, is less well understood. In certain other infections, including bartonellosis and the South American spotted fevers, a wild rodent reservoir is inferred but not yet identified.
南美洲的本土啮齿动物数量众多、种类多样且适应性强，占据了大部分可利用的自然栖息地。人们对它们的分类学和生物学知识普遍了解不足。在人类居住地附近，引入的褐家鼠和小家鼠很常见，它们与人类的接触也常常很密切。南美洲的城市正在不断扩张，以跟上人口增长的步伐， hitherto virgin land is being settled or cleared for food production. 因此，家养啮齿动物与本土物种接触，寄生虫的必然交换可能会对人类健康产生不可预测的威胁。野生和家养啮齿动物在某些传染病传播中的作用，如鼠疫、丛林型委内瑞拉脑炎、南美洲出血热、鼠型斑疹伤寒和皮肤利什曼病，已得到充分证实。啮齿动物在其他一些疾病中的作用，如钩端螺旋体病、美洲锥虫病、南美洲包虫病和水疱性口炎，人们了解较少。在某些其他感染中，包括巴尔通体病和南美洲斑点热，虽然推断存在野生啮齿动物宿主，但尚未确定。
