Detection of Pathogens and Novel Viruses Carried by New York City Rats

No one was under the illusion that New York’s rats were clean creatures, but a study published this week in mBio found dozens of viruses that have never been described by science, some of which may be potentially harmful to humans. “While a subset of the agents we identified are known to cause disease in humans, many more are novel viruses whose zoonotic potential cannot be inferred from available data,” Cadhla Firth, the lead researcher of the team from Columbia University, wrote. “It is therefore possible that human infection with some of the agents identified here may already be occurring, and the risk of future zoonotic transmission should not be disregarded.”

Beyond that, the researchers found many, many pathogens that are well known and are very bad for people, pets, and sometimes even zebras. So, in an attempt to scare the bejesus out of everyone, I quickly analyzed the 32 species of clinically important microbes that were identified. 

Source: motherboard.vice.com

See on Scoop.it – Virology and Bioinformatics from Virology.ca