Epidemiological studies of plague in India: 2. The changing pattern of rodents and fleas in Calcutta and other cities.
Data from early in the twentieth century up to the present day indicate that Rattus rattus among rodents and Xenopsylla cheopis among fleas are the two most important elements in urban human plague infection in India, R. norvegicus playing a more minor role. The relative numbers of both these species have decreased in recent years in Bombay and Calcutta, while those of Bandicota bengalensis, which is less heavily parasitized by X. cheopis, have risen. This reduction in the numbers of the epidemiologically more important rodents and their fleas has been accompanied by a reduction in the number of human plague cases.
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