Editing Rat (section)

===In the spread of disease===
{{anchor|Medicine}}
[[File:He Spreads Disease Art.IWMPST14211.jpg|thumb|World War II-era poster warning about rats as a disease vector and pest]]
Rats can serve as [[zoonotic]] vectors for certain pathogens and thus spread disease, such as [[bubonic plague]], [[Lassa fever]], [[leptospirosis]], and [[hantavirus]] infection.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.leptospirosis.org/other-diseases|title=Information on other rodent-related diseases – Leptospirosis Information|newspaper=Leptospirosis Information|language=en-US|access-date=2016-10-31|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031152822/http://www.leptospirosis.org/other-diseases|archive-date=2016-10-31}}</ref> Researchers studying [[New York City]] wastewater have also cited rats as the potential source of "cryptic" [[Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2|SARS-CoV-2]] lineages, due to unknown viral RNA fragments in sewage matching mutations previously shown to make SARS-CoV-2 more adept at rodent-based transmission.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mench |first1=Chris |title=New York City's Rats Could Have Their Own Strain of COVID-19 |url=https://www.thrillist.com/news/new-york/nyc-rats-developed-their-own-covid-strain |access-date=8 February 2022 |publisher=Thrillist |date=4 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205154749/https://www.thrillist.com/news/new-york/nyc-rats-developed-their-own-covid-strain |archive-date=5 February 2022}}</ref>

Rats are also associated with human [[dermatitis]] because they are frequently infested with blood feeding rodent mites such as the tropical rat mite (''[[Ornithonyssus bacoti]]'') and spiny rat mite (''Laelaps echidnina''), which will opportunistically bite and feed on humans,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=J. |title=New Building, Old Parasite: Mesostigmatid Mites--An Ever-Present Threat to Barrier Rodent Facilities |journal=ILAR Journal |date=2008 |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=303–309 |doi=10.1093/ilar.49.3.303 |pmid=18506063 |pmc=7108606 }}</ref> where the condition is known as [[rat mite dermatitis]]''.''<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Engel|first1=Peter M.|last2=Welzel|first2=J.|last3=Maass|first3=M.|last4=Schramm|first4=U.|last5=Wolff|first5=H. H.|date=1998|title=Tropical Rat Mite Dermatitis: Case Report and Review|journal=Clinical Infectious Diseases|language=en|volume=27|issue=6|pages=1465–1469|doi=10.1086/515016|pmid=9868661 |doi-access=free}}</ref>