During 1997 to 1998, the prevalence of
Salmonella species in house rats from 2 buildings in downtown Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture was investigated.
Salmonella sp. was isolated from 60 (17.7%) of 339 rats. Of the rats captured, 16.4% (42/256) of
Rattus rattus and 21.7% (18/83) of
R. norvegicus were positive for
Salmonella sp. The seasonal prevalence was 17.1% in Spring (March to May), 22.0% in Summer (June to August), 14.6% in Autumn (September to November), and 20.5% in Winter (December to February), respectively. Serovars
S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis were isolated from 17.1% (58/339) and 0.6% (2/339) of the rats investigated. The 65 untypable strains with
Salmonella typing sera were identified specifically as
S. Typhimurium by polymerase chain reaction.
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