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Experts warning rash of rodents flush with disease
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"Plague and hantavirus are still in the moderate range, but we're seeing it in a larger geographic area. . . . We think it's going to escalate substantially. It's likely to be a much higher risk next year."
Terry Yates, hantavirus expert at the University of New Mexico
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Protect yourself
Rodents are out in droves this year, but protecting yourself from rodent-borne disease remains relatively simple, experts say.
Here's some key advice:
• Don't touch dead rodents. If you find dead rabbits or mice on your property and live east of Tramway Boulevard, call 311 and report it to the city.
• Don't touch live rodents. Fleas and ticks often live on them and can jump several feet onto a person, bringing disease with them.
• Keep your cat or dog inside - or at least make sure your animals wear flea and tick collars. In all four plague cases this year, the families had indoor-outdoor pets that weren't wearing flea and tick collars.
• Wear a dust mask when cleaning parts of your home where you suspect mice have been. Hantavirus is spread through contact with infected droppings.
• Cover any holes in your house larger than a quarter-inch wide - such as cable lines - so rodents can't get into your home.
Sources: City of Albuquerque, New Mexico Department of Health
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Warning to you outdoorsy New Mexicans: Please don't pet the bunnies.
Abundant rains have left the state's wild areas teeming with rodents - including rats, squirrels and rabbits - raising the threat for a host of rodent-borne disease, said Mark DiMenna, environmental health supervisor for the city.
There have been four cases of plague in the state since May, including a 3-year-old East Mountains boy who died.
There were eight in all of 2006, DiMenna said.
Plague - a bacterial disease that causes swollen and tender lymph glands, high fever and bloody sputum - is spread by infected fleas that live on rodents.
Another disease, tularemia, is rapidly moving through the growing rabbit population, killing them in droves - although it's not making a big dent in their populations, said DiMenna and Paul Ettestad, the state public health veterinarian.
"There's been a lot of rabbit die-off in our north central counties here," Ettestad said. "We've had dead rabbits in several counties, including Santa Fe and Bernalillo, and dogs and cats have tested positive in seven counties."
Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is a potentially fatal flulike disease in humans characterized by sudden fever, chills, headache, diarrhea, muscle aches, joint pain, dry cough and progressive weakness.
It can spread by handling an infected carcass; being bitten by an infected tick or flea; eating or drinking contaminated food or water; or breathing in the bacteria.
On the plus side, at least, it doesn't spread from person to person. And so far, there haven't been any human cases this year in New Mexico, Ettestad said.
But don't let the lack of cases fool you. Tularemia and other diseases are out there, Ettestad and DiMenna said.
In the Albuquerque area, tularemia-infected rabbits and plague-infected animals, such as rats, have been found in areas east of Tramway Boulevard and northeast of Eubank Boulevard, DiMenna said.
"We have picked up so many rabbits this year, we've lost count," DiMenna said.
Hantavirus is also starting to crop up around the state, said Terry Yates, an expert on the disease at the University of New Mexico.
"We had a case at UNM Hospital just this past weekend," Yates said. "The rodent numbers last month when we sampled were extremely high - and virtually all the deer mice we caught were pregnant."
Hantavirus is carried mainly by deer mice and a handful of other rodents. It spreads to humans through contact with infected urine, droppings and saliva.
Symptoms include fatigue, fever, muscle aches, chills, abdominal problems and eventually shortness of breath as the lungs fill with fluid.
The number of cases of the disease will likely grow in coming months and appear in a broader range of counties, Yates said.
"Plague and hantavirus are still in the moderate range, but we're seeing it in a larger geographic area," Yates said.
But next year, unless something dramatic happens with the weather, we could see the situation get much worse, Yates said.
"We think it's going to escalate substantially," Yates said. "It's likely to be a much higher risk next year."
That's true with all the rodent-borne diseases - as rodents continue to grow fat on plants brought out by the wet spring, DiMenna said.
"It's almost monsoon season, and we'll probably get even more rodents," DiMenna said. "If we don't have a prolonged drought or a very cold winter, we could have hordes of rodents out there by next spring."
But so far, it's not looking good for less moisture - or for a particularly cold winter, said Ted Sammis, state climatologist.
"The prediction is we're getting early monsoons, there's more rain than normal, and it's probably going to stay that way," Sammis said. "And winter? I can tell you that it's going to be warmer than normal. But that's nothing new."
