Plague Surveillance on the Border of Thailand and Myanmar

Abstract

           As Plague is a dangerous infectious disease which can be found in Myanmar every year and Tak is a province bordered with Myanmar, the purposes of this study is to do plague surveillance among animal reservoir, i.e., rodents or rats and flea population, especially in Mae Sot and Phab Phra Districts of Tak Province. During 26 February 2005 to 8 April 2005, rats were collected and identified by sex and flea index. Spleen examination was conducted to detect Yersinia pestis The result of the study revealed that. Yersinia pestis was not found in the spleen of 126 rats collected. Six species of rat were found as followed: six species of rats were found, there are, Rattus exulans 66.67 percent, Mus musculus 17.46 percent, Rattus norvegicus is 7.94 percent, Argentiventer is 3.97 percent, Losea is 3.13 percent, and Bandicota indica is 0.79 percent. Sex of male and female is 46, 80. Sex ratio of male and female is 1:1.74 and flea were found in 4 rats and flea index is 0.33. Female rats were found nearly one fold more than male rats, thus, it is expected that rat population will increase in the future. It is recommended that if the flea index less together with environmental and sanitation development, rat's bane should be applied to get rid of rats. In order to evaluate the progress of this activity, plague surveillance should be carried out at least twice a year.