Pakistan J. Zool., vol. 44(6), pp. 1721-1726, 2012. Infestation of Rodents (Rodentia: Muridae) Among Houses in Kashan, Central Iran Rouhollah Dehghani, 1 Babak Vazirianzadeh, 2 * Mohammad Ali Asadi, 3 Hossien Akbari 3 and Seyed Abbas Moravvej 2 1 Department of Environmental Health, School of Health, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran 2 Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, and Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Centre, Ahvaz Jundishapour University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran 3 Kashan Medical Sciences University Kashan, Iran Abstract.- 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 realised 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. Keywords Rodents, house infestation, commensal rodents, Kashan, Iran INTRODUCTION Domestic rodents which belong to Muridae family of Myomorpha are well known commensal animals. These are considered as economic pests and cause public health problems because their close association with humans and on addition, the incisor teeth of rodents grow continuously, and hence they must gnaw to keep them worn down. They are also known as good jumpers, climbers and swimmers (Etemad, 1985; Brooks et al., 1990; Baker et al., 2006; Timm, 2006; Shu-Yu et al., 2006; West and Messmer, 2010). It has been well documented that the commensal rodents, including: rats and mice are carriers or reservoirs about 200 diseases in man and animals. The human and animal foods and food catering areas and facilities are contaminated by their fur, urine and droppings which are leaded to transmitting different kinds of the diseases around _________________________ * Corresponding author: babakvazir@yahoo.co.uk 0030-9923/2012/0006-1721 $ 8.00/0 Copyright 2012 Zoological Society of Pakistan the world. The most medical and public health importance of them are salmonellosis, leptospirosis, haemorrhage fever, trichinosis, chagas, leishmaniasis, scrub typhus, rickettsial pox, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, rat-bite fever, hanta virus haemorrhagic pulmonary syndrome, Venezuelan equine encephalitis (Alphavinus), powassan encephalitis (Flavivinus), rabies, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, eosinophilic meningitis, taeniasis, cryptosporidia, Trypanosoma lewisi and Hymenolopis diminuta. Additionally, they may be sources of swine dysentery, brucellosis, sarcoptic mange, and tuberculosis, all of which affect livestock or pets (Karimi, 1977; Hoshvar, 1987; Warren and Mahmoud Adel, 1990; Rasti et al., 2000; Abu-Madi et al., 2001; Hilton et al., 2002; Linardi and Botelho, 2002; Singleton et al., 2003; Svobodova et al., 2003; Baker et al., 2006; Hanafi- Bojd et al., 2007; Mushtaq et al., 2008; Anonymous, 2010). Rats and mice cause serious damages to all kinds of structures if they are allowed access to them. Damage by rodents has been documented in homes, apartments, hotels, office complexes, retail