About 6,500 parasites were found on the rats, including several mite species, a louse species, and rat fleas. The team, led by investigators in New York, published its results this week (March 2) in ...

canis), the ground squirrel flea (Oropsylla montana), and the Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis). But the one that causes the biggest problems is the cat flea, which affects both cats and dogs.

Infected fleas carried by rats, cats, opossums, dogs and other small mammals can spread the disease, according to the DSHS. The disease is also known as “murine” or “endemic” typhus.

Every now and then we have a plague of fleas, which seem to be especially attracted to me and bite me everywhere. At the moment I have 70 bites all over my body, because a rat carrying fleas got ...