Abstract
Rodents are considered as the largest group of mammals in the world that live in a variety of terrestrial habitats, including human-made environments. The main importance of these mammals is transmitting of some serious pathogenic agents to human. Rodents can be infected by a large number of parasitic cestodes, protozoa, and nematodes that may cause infectious diseases in human. The objective of this study was to assess parasitic infection and associated risk factors among house mice caught in West Azarbaijan, north-west of Iran, with a special view on zoonotic aspects. One hundred and fifty six captured rodents were individually anesthetized with ether and dissected. The whole gastrointestinal tract was excised and examined for the presence of parasites. Of 156 examined mice, 43 (27.6 %) were found positive for gastrointestinal parasite. The overall, three Nematoda species; Syphacia obvelata (11.5 %), Syphacia muris (1.9 %), and Aspicularis tetraptera (1.3 %) and two Cestoda species; Hymenolepis diminuta (8.3 %) and Hymenolepis nana (4.5 %) were collected. Twenty four (81.4 %) and five (18.6 %) infected mice showed single and mixed infections, respectively. The difference was shown significant by statistical analysis (p > 0.05). The rate of infection was greater in Nematoda 23 (14.8 %) than Cestoda species 20 (12.8 %). Statistical analysis indicated that this difference was not significant (p > 0.05). According to the host sex, significantly higher prevalence of infection was noted in male (31 %) compared to female (25.5 %). The results obtained in this study presented some basic information about species and distribution parasites among mice captured in the north-west of Iran. Therefore, further detailed researches should be carried out to determine the distribution and species of parasites in rodents with more focus on their zoonotic aspects in the area.
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