Infestation of rodents (Rodentia: Muridae) among houses in Kashan, Central Iran

Rodents are the most frequent of mammals around the world. The commensal rodents, including rats and mice are carriers or reservoirs of about 200 diseases in man and animals around the world. Rats and mice cause serious damages to all kinds of structures, too. This study was carried out to show prevalence of domestic murid infestation among residencies in the city of Kashan. In this research study, 400 residential houses from different regions of Kashan were checked out to detect the murid infestation and its damage rates. Rodents were observed in the 57.75% (231 houses) of 400 houses in this study. Three kinds of rodents were identified by species level including: 33 (91.6%) of Mus musculus, 2 (5.5%) of Rattus norvegicus and 1 (2.7%) of R. rattusus of Muridae family. The realized data of this study let us to conclude that rodent infestation in the houses of Kashan is a pest problem which may be leaded to the human health problem. This infestation is related to the many factors, which the most important of them are included: species of Muridae family, ages of buildings, main structure material of buildings and awareness of owners from the rate of rodent damages to their houses.