Scientists find dangerous pathogens carried by rats in New York City. The scientists, from the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, identified harmful bacterial pathogens such as  E. coli, Salmonella, and C. difficile, which can cause mild to life-threatening gastroenteritis in individuals along with Seoul hantavirus, which causes Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever and kidney failure in humans, and the closest relative to hepatitis C among humans. The study results appear in the journal mBio.

Researchers trapped 133 Norway rats at five locations in New York City with a focus on rats trapped inside residential buildings. Targeted molecular assays confirmed that 15 of the 20 bacterial and protozoan pathogens were present out of the ones they looked for along with the presence of Seoul hantavirus in eight rats. This is the first time the virus has been documented in New York City and genetic clues indicate it may be a recent arrival. Human infection has been linked to numerous cases of hemmorhagic fever with renal syndrome and chronic renal disease in Maryland and Los Angeles. The virus has been implicated in cases of hypertension.

Dr. Firth, who conducted the study as a research scientist at Columbia’s Center for Infection and Immunity, said in a statement, “New Yorkers are constantly exposed to rats and the pathogens they carry, perhaps more than any other animal.” He continued, “Despite this, we know very little about the impact they have on human health.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hantaviruses are carried and transmitted by rodents. People can become infected with the viruses and develop hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome after exposure to aerosolized urine, droppings, or saliva of infected rodents or after exposure to dust from their nests.