Diseases carried by mice include, but are not limited too, the following:
| Plague Map
(click to enlarge) |
Bubonic plague - Mice are not infected with plague as often as rats, but infections do occur. This disease is spread to humans by fleas. Plague is usually fatal within a few days of infection. It is present in rodents throughout the western United States, and in many other parts of the world (see map →).
Salmonella - Mice and rats are both frequent carriers. Spreads to humans by contact with mouse droppings, especially through consumption of contaminated food. Causes serious, sometimes fatal gastroenteritis. Household pets are also frequently infected with Salmonella by this means and often die as a result.
Murine Typhus (typhus transmitted from mice via flea bite) - This disease is treatable with antibiotics, but can cause death in elderly or infirm individuals. Symptoms include vomiting, fever, headache, myalgia, and cough.
Leptospirosis - Rats are mice are both carriers of this potentially fatal disease. More about leptospirosis →
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Rat-bite Fever - Fatal in 10 percent of untreated cases. Usually contracted from rats, but infection can also occur from mice. The bacterium causing this disease enters the body through bites, as its name suggests, or from urine contaminating either food or preexisting skin wounds.
Tapeworms - Mice host small tapeworms of the genus Hymenolepis can be spread to humans eating foods contaminated with droppings (or when hands are merely dirtied by droppings and not washed before meals). These parasites hatch out in the gut where they grow and reproduce. More about Hymenolepis tapeworms →
Ways that mice transmit disease to humans:
- By biting;
- By infecting human food with droppings;
- By infecting human food with urine;
- By infecting skin wounds with urine;
- Indirectly, by blood-sucking insects;
- Indirectly, by mites;
- Indirectly, by means of cats and dogs;
- By dying in a water source drunk by humans.
| Diseases Carried by Mice - © Macroevolution.net |
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