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The Changing Ecology of Murine (Endemic) Typhus in Southern California^*,,

William H. Adams, Richard W. Emmons AND Joe E. Brooks

A shift in the distribution of cases of murine typhus in man from central Los Angeles to areas in eastern Los Angeles and Orange counties, California, has been recognized over the past 20 years. The absence of the classic flea vector, Xenopsylla cheopis, and of Rattus norvegicus seropositive for murine typhus in these foothill areas suggested that other transmission cycles were involved. During 1967, a field study was conducted in an endemic area of eastern Orange County. Serum was obtained from 443 of 477 animals (14 species), and ectoparasites were obtained from 401 animals. Serum-antibody tests were positive only for eight of 75 opossums (Didelphis marsupialis) and one of seven skunks (Mephitis mephitis). All ectoparasites tested were negative for rickettsiae, but Rickettsia typhi was isolated from the spleen of one seropositive opossum trapped at the residence of a person with typhus. The association of seropositive opossums with human cases, and the heavy infestations of the animals with Ctenocephalides felis fleas, which readily bite man, suggested that opossums and their ectoparasites are responsible for some of the sporadic cases of typhus in man.

Accepted for publication June 20, 1969.

^* This study was supported in part by Grant AI-01475 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, United States Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and in part by Public Health Service Training Grant 5T01-GM-00214 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to the Epidemiology Field Research Training Program of the Division of Research, California State Department of Public Health.

Please address requests for reprints to Dr. Emmons.

Present address: Department of Medicine, Boston City Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.

Present address: Rodent Control Evaluation Section, New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York.