Surveys of rodent-borne disease in Thailand with a focus on scrub typhus assessment

The epidemiology of many rodent-borne diseases in South-East Asia remains ill-defined. Scrub typhus and leptospirosis are common and medically significant, while other zoonotic diseases, such as spotted fever group Rickettsiae have been identified, but their overall medical significance is unknown. Rodent surveillance was conducted from June 2002 to July 2004 in 18 provinces from Thailand. Traps were set up for one to three nights. Blood and serum samples and animal tissue samples (liver, spleen, kidney and urinary bladder) were collected. Chiggermites, ticks and fleas were removed from captured rodents. A total of 4536 wild-caught rodents from 27 species were captured over two years of animal trapping. Rattus rattus was the dominant species, followed by Rattus exulans and Bandicota indica. Almost 43 000 ectoparasites were removed from the captured animals. Approximately 98% of the ectoparasites were chigger-mites, of which 46% belonged to the genus Leptotrombidium (scrub typhus vector). Other genera included Schoengastia and Blankaartia. Tick and flea specimens together comprised less than 1% of the sample. Among the five species of ticks collected, Haemaphysalis bandicota was the predominant species caught, followed by Ixodes granulatus other Haemaphysalis spp., Rhipicephalus spp. and Dermacentor spp. Only two species of fleas were collected and Xenopsylla cheopis (rat flea) was the predominant species. Using both commercial diagnostic kits and in-house molecular assays, animal tissue samples were examined and screened for zoonotic diseases. Seven zoonotic diseases were detected: scrub typhus, leptospirosis, murine typhus, tick typhus, bartonella, babesiosis and trypanosomiasis. Most samples were positive for scrub typhus. Other zoonotic diseases still under investigation include borrelosis, ehrlichiosis, the plague, and other rickettsial diseases. Using geographic information systems, global positioning systems and remote sensing technology, epidemiological and environmental data were combined to assess the relative risk in different biotopes within highly endemic areas of scrub typhus in Thailand.