Original Article

Faunistic Study of the Rodents of North Khorasan Province, North East of Iran, 2011–2013

Abstract

Background: Rodents are one of the most important hosts for some zoonotic diseases and also act as a reservoir of some ectoparasites and endoparasites. They cause damage to the farms and inflict public health. The aim of this study was to investigate the faunal composition of rodent in North Khorasan Province, Northeast of Iran.
Methods: The sampling was carried out between 2011 to 2013. The specimens were collected using different methods including rodent death and live traps, digging of their burrow, and hand net from 75 different sample sites.
Results: The total number of 396 specimens belonging to 22 species and six families were identified. The results illustrated the high numbers and densities of Meriones persicus (17.68%), Meriones libycus (15.15%), Nesokia indica (7.32%) and Rhombomys opimus (6.82%), as the most important reservoirs for different zoonotic diseases. Moreover, significant number of other rodent species including Mus musculus (15.66%), Apodemus witherbyi (13.89%), A. hyrcanicus (0.25%), Rattus norvegicus (1.01%), Meriones crassus (0.25%), Gerbillus nanus (0.51%), Microtus paradoxus (2.27%), M. transcaspicus (0.76%), Ellobius fuscocapillus (0.25%), Cricetulus migratorius (4.29%), Calomyscus elburzensis (4.29%), C. mystax (1.26%), Spermophilus fulvus (0.25%), Dryomys nitedula (3.54%), Allactaga elater (3.54%), Jaculus blanfordi (0.25%), Meriones zarudnyi (0.25%), M. meridianus (0.51%), and Hystrix indica as hosts for parasites and zoonotic diseases were identified.
Conclusion: The high biodiversity including at least 22 species and six families of rodents were found in North Khorasan Province, some of them were medically important species.

Etemad E (1967) Mammals of Iran. Vol. 1 (Rodents and key to their identifica¬tion). National Society of Natural Sources and Human Environment Pro¬tection Publications, Tehran, p. 288.

Meerburg BG, Singleton GR, Kijlstra A (2009) Rodent-borne diseases and their risks for public health. Crit Rev Mi¬crobiol. 35(3): 221–270.

Akhoundi M, Mohebali M, Asadi M, Mah¬modi MR, Amraei K, Mirzaei A (2013)

Molecular characterization of Leish-mania spp. in reservoir hosts in en¬dem¬ic foci of zoonotic cutaneous leish-maniasis in Iran. Folia Parasitol. 60 (3): 218–224.

Arzamani K, Salehi M, Mobedi I, Adin-ezade A, Hasanpour H, Alavinia M, Darvish J, Shirzadi MR, Mohammadi Z (2017) Intestinal Helminths in Dif¬ferent Species of Rodents in North Khorasan Province, Northeast of Iran. Iran J Parasitol. 12(2): 267–273.

Azizi MH, Azizi F (2010) A history of the human plague in Iran. Arch Iran Med. 13(6): 563–569.

Darvish J, Arzamani K, Abdolahpoor G, Shirzadi M, Mohammadi Z, Alavinia M (2016) Rodent leptospirosis in North Khorasan Province, Northeast of Iran. Int J Infect Dis. 45: 465.

Darvish J, Siahsarvie R, Mirshamsi O, Kayvan¬far N, Hashemi N, Sadeghi Shakib F (2007) Diversity of the ro-dents of northeastern Iran. Iran J Anim Biosyst. 2(1): 57–76.

Kassiri H, Javadian E, Abdigoudarzi M (2011) Natural Leishmania Infection in Meriones hurrianae and Tatera in¬dica (Rodentia: Cricetidae: Gerbilli¬nae) in Sistan-Baluchistan Province, South-Eastern of Iran. Adv Stud Biol. 3(6): 247–256.

Javadian E, Nadim A, Tahvildare-Bidruni GH, Assefi V (1976) Epidemiology of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran: B. Khorassan Part V: Report on a focus of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Esferayen. Bull Soc Pathol Exot Filiales. 69(2): 140–143.

PonirovskiÄ EN, Darchenkova NN (2008) Landscape-epidemiological zoning of Turkmenistan by leishmaniasis. Med Parazitol (Mosk). (1): 27–30.

Corbet GB (1978) The mammals of the Palaearctic region: a taxonomic re-view. Br Mus. p. 314.

Kryštufek B, Vohralík V (2005) Mammals of Turkey and Cyprus. Rodentia I: Sci¬uridae, Dipodidae, Gliridae, Arvicoli-nae. Vol. 2. Knjiñnica Annales Ma¬jora, Koper Univerza na Primorskem. p. 292.

Kryštufek B, Vohralík V, Janžekovič F (2009) Mammals of Turkey and Cy-prus: Rodentia II: Cricetinae, Muri¬dae, Spalacidae, Calomyscidae, Ca-promydae, Hystricidae, Castoridae. Vol. 3. Univerza na Primorskem, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče, Založba Annales. p. 372.

Carleton MD, Musser GG (2005) Order Rodentia. In: Wilson DE and Reeder DM (Eds): Mammal species of the World, a taxonomic and geographic reference. The John Hopkins Univer-sity Press, Baltinore, Maryland, pp. 745–1599.

Misonne X (1959) Analyse zo-ogéographique des mammifères de l'Iran. Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. pp. 1–157.

Karimi Y, Rodrigues de Almeida C, Petter F (1976) Note sur les rongeurs du nord-est du Brésil. Mammalia. 40 (2): 257–266.

Hajjaran H, Mohebali M, Alimoradi S, Abaei M, Edrissian GH (2009) Isola-tion and characterization of pathogen¬ic Leishmania turanica from Nesokia indica (Rodentia, Muridae) by PCR-RFLP and ITS1 sequencing in Iran. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 103(11): 1177–1179.

Yousefi A, Eslami A, Mobedi I, Rahbari S, Ronaghi H (2014) Helminth infec-tions of house mouse (Mus musculus) and wood mouse (Apodemus sylvati¬cus) from the suburban areas of Ham¬adan City, western Iran. Iran J Parasi¬tol. 9(4): 511–518.

Turner C (1986) Seasonal and age dis¬tri-butions of Babesia, Hepatozoon, Tryp-anosoma and Grahamella species in Clethrionomys glareolus and Apode-mus sylvaticus populations. Parasitol¬. 93(2): 279–289.

Mostafavi E, Shahraki AH, Japoni-Nejad A, Esmaeili S, Darvish J, Sedaghat MM, Mohammadi A, Mohammadi Z, Mahmoudi A, Pourhossein B, Ghase-mi A, Gyuranecz M, Carniel E (2017) A Field Study of Plague and Tulare¬mia in Rodents, Western Iran. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 17(4): 247–253.

Rajabzadeh R, Arzamani K, Shoraka H, Riyhani H, Hosseini SH (2015) Epi-demiological survey and geograph-ical distribution of cutaneous Leish-maniasis in North Khorasan Prov-ince, 2006–2013. Int J Epidemiol Res. 2 (4): 197–203.

Mirzaei A, Rouhani S, Taherkhani H, Farah¬mand M, Kazemi B, Hedayati M, Baghaei A, Davari B, Parvizi P (2011) Isolation and detection of Leishmania species among naturally infected Rhom¬bomis opimus, a reservoir host of zo¬onotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Tur¬kemen Sahara, North East of Iran. Exp Parasitol. 129(4): 375–380.

Arzamani K (2012) Visceral leishmania¬sis in North Khorasan Province, north east of Iran. Int J Infect Dis. 16: e340–e341.

Mohebali M (2013) Visceral leishmaniasis in Iran: review of the epidemiological and clinical features. Iran J Parasitol. 8(3): 348.

Kia E, Homayouni M, Farahnak A, Mohe¬bali M, Shojai S (2001) Study of en-do¬parasites of rodents and their zo¬on-otic importance in Ahvaz, south west iran. Iran J Public Health. 30(1–2): 49–52.

Esfandiari B, Pourshafie MR, Gouya MM, Khaki P, Mostafavi E, Darvish J, Bid-hendi SM, Hanifi H, Nahrevanian H (2015) An epidemio-logical compar¬a¬tive study on diagno¬sis of rodent leptospiro¬sis in Ma¬zandaran Province, northern Iran. Ep¬idemiol Health. 37: e2015012.

Files
IssueVol 12 No 2 (2018) QRcode
SectionOriginal Article
DOI https://doi.org/10.18502/jad.v12i2.38
Keywords
Fauna Rodents Biodiversity Iran
Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Arzamani K, Mohammadi Z, Shirzadi MR, Alavinia SM, Jafari B, Darvish J. Faunistic Study of the Rodents of North Khorasan Province, North East of Iran, 2011–2013. J Arthropod Borne Dis. 2018;12(2):127-134.