Small mammals of the Kaluga region – reservoirs of dangerous zoonotic diseases

Abstract

The article considers the issues of carriage by small mammals of dangerous zoonotic diseases: leptospirosis, tularemia, hantaviruses. Data on the detection of antigens to pathogens in the districts of the Kaluga region are presented. As you know, small mammals are the main link in maintaining zoonotic natural focal diseases. The larval phases of ixodic ticks, mosquitoes and other parasitic arthropods prefer to feed on the blood of mouse rodents, which contributes to the spread of vector-borne infections and infestations. The following species of mouse rodents are found in the Kaluga Region: small forest mouse (Apodemus uralensis), gray vole, red vole (Myodes glareolus), field mouse (Apodemus agrarius), gray rat (Rattus norvegicus), and house mouse (Mus musculus). In natural biotopes, field species prevail in number: field mouse, gray vole, red vole. In the Kaluga region, antigens for tularemia, hantaviruses, and leptospirosis were found in small mammals in 4.9–9.4% of the studied animals on average per year. Of particular concern are the city of Kaluga, Borovsky, Babyninsky, Yukhnovsky, Ulyanovsk, Medynsky, Maloyaroslavetsky, Meshchovsky, Peremyshlsky, Kozelsky, Dzerzhinsky and Ulyanovsk districts. The data obtained indicate the stationarity of these diseases in the territory of the Kaluga region.