Public Health and Rodents: A Game of Cat and Mouse

Rodents are the most abundant order of living mammals, distributed on every continent except Antarctic and represent 43 % of all mammalian species. Beside causing food losses and infrastructural damage, rodents can harbour pathogens that may cause serious problems to human and animal health. Unfortunately, rodent-associated problems are not an issue of the past as some may have thought, even not in the developed world. This chapter describes four factors that determine the risk and severity of human infection by zoonotic pathogens of rodents: human behaviour, human health condition, rodent ecology & behaviour and pathogen ecology & persistence. It provides an overview of these factors, their interrelation and also some directions for further research. Main conclusion of this chapter is that although science has come a long way already and we have won some small victories over the rodents, the game of cat (i.e. humans) and mouse is far from being settled.