Emerging Infectious Diseases (Oct 2008)

Rickettsia typhi and R. felis in Rat Fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis), Oahu, Hawaii

  • Marina E. Eremeeva,
  • Wesley R. Warashina,
  • Michele M. Sturgeon,
  • Arlene E. Buchholz,
  • Gregory K. Olmsted,
  • Sarah Y. Park,
  • Paul V. Effler,
  • Sandor E. Karpathy

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1410.080571
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 10
pp. 1613 – 1615

Abstract

Read online

Rickettsia typhi (prevalence 1.9%) and R. felis (prevalence 24.8%) DNA were detected in rat fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis) collected from mice on Oahu Island, Hawaii. The low prevalence of R. typhi on Oahu suggests that R. felis may be a more common cause of rickettsiosis than R. typhi in Hawaii.

Keywords