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Oriental Rat Flea

Xenopsylla cheopis (Rothschild 1903)

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A study done in 1997 demonstrates that X. cheopis has evolved resistance to commercial insect repellents due to its long association with humans.

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Behavior

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Fleas have a pygidium, a sensory organ on their dorsal side, which detects vibrations and air currents. Pupae use these signals to time their emergence from their cocoons. Not much is known about how these fleas communicate with one another.

Perception Channels: tactile ; vibrations

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Conservation Status

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Xenopsylla cheopis is quite common throughout the world.

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Life Cycle

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Fleas are holometabolous, which means they go through four life-cycle stages: egg (embryo), larva, pupa, and adult (imago). Eggs normally incubate for about two to twelve days. Xenopsylla cheopis passes through three molts during the larval stage, which usually lasts about nine to fifteen days, but can last up to 200 days in unfavorable conditions. Next, the larva spins a silk cocoon where it remains until it is finished pupating. During the pupal stage the flea's development rate is greatly affected by its surroundings. Changes in temperature and humidity outside the cocoon can inhibit emerging for up to a full year.

Development - Life Cycle: metamorphosis

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Benefits

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Besides just being pesky when it bites, Xenopsylla cheopis is a vector of plague bacilli, Yersina pestis, and the agent of murine typhus, Rickettsia typhi. Both diseases are a threat to humans and other animals that encounter them. In urban foci, the reservoir hosts of plague are usually species of Rattus, most commonly Rattus rattus.

Negative Impacts: injures humans (carries human disease); household pest

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Associations

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Xenopsylla cheopis is a parasite of many mammalian species, including Rattus and humans. Because of its parasitic nature, Xenopsylla cheopis is a vector for pathogens such as plague bacilli, Yersina pestis, and murine typhus, Rickettsia typhi. Transmission of the pathogen occurs as bacteria enter the flea's gut and multiply rapidly. Soon the flea's proventriculus is blocked by a mass of bacteria and it cannot fill its stomach, causing the flea to search for a new host. After biting the host, the blood of an uninfected host mixes with bacteria in the flea's stomach; the flea expels infected blood back into the wound consequently, infecting a new host. Xenopsylla cheopis goes from host to host infecting the uninfected. Hosts may also become infected either from consuming fecal matter or dead remnants of an infected X. cheopis.

Xenopsylla cheopis carries the tapeworm of rats and mice, Hymenolepis diminut (rat tapeworm) and serves as an intermediate host for Hymenolepis nana (mouse tapeworm).

Ecosystem Impact: parasite

Species Used as Host:

  • Mammalia
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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Trophic Strategy

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Adults of both sexes of Xenopsylla cheopis feed on blood. They bite Rattus rattus (Black Rat) and other mammals, including humans. Xenopsylla cheopis obtains the host's blood through a set of external mouthparts, which consist of the following maxillary lacunae and an epipharynx. The purpose of each structure is to aid in the sucking up of blood. After biting, the fleas suck blood from a pool (telmophagy), unlike some other insects like mosquitoes that feed directly from the blood vessel (solenophagy).

Piercing of the host's skin is achieved by the back and fourth action of the maxillary laciniae. After the skin is cut the epipharynx enters the wound and injects salvia. Saliva contains special chemicals, which keep the host's blood from coagulating. A canal formed by the maxillary laciniae and the epipharnyx then sucks up blood. Further down the gut a specialized organ called the proventriclus then breaks down blood cells enabling the X. cheopis to digest the blood meal. The average capacity of Xenopsylla cheopis is 0.5 cubic millimeters.

The larvae of X. cheopis have mandibles, which they use to feed on detritus and the feces of the adult fleas, which are found in the nests of hosts.

Animal Foods: blood

Other Foods: detritus

Primary Diet: carnivore (Sanguivore )

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Distribution

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Xenopsylla cheopis is found worldwide in association with its primary hosts, Rattus spp.

Other Geographic Terms: cosmopolitan

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Habitat

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Xenopsylla cheopis usually inhabits tropical and subtropical habitats, although it has been reported in the temperate zone as well. Xenopsylla cheopis is rarely found in cold areas since it requires a tropical/subtropical climate to pupate. Fleas are prevalent in many major cities. Species of Rattus typically found in city sewer systems and other human related habitats are excellent hosts for X. cheopis. Seaports and other rat-infested areas are also common habitats for X. cheopis.

Fleas are nidiculous parasites; they live in the host's nest. Clothing, beds and couches make perfect homes for many of these fleas. Fleas only attach to the host while they are sucking blood; at other times they are free-living in the host's nest.

Habitat Regions: temperate ; tropical ; terrestrial

Terrestrial Biomes: desert or dune ; savanna or grassland ; chaparral ; forest ; rainforest ; scrub forest ; mountains

Other Habitat Features: urban ; suburban ; agricultural

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
editor
Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Life Expectancy

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An adult X. cheopis can survive up to 100 days in temperatures of 45 to 50°F. Maximum life span for X. cheopis is 376 days. A long life span increases survival rates of Xenopsylla cheopis, thus resulting in greater a chance of transmitting pathogens.

Range lifespan
Status: wild:
376 (high) days.

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
editor
Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Morphology

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Adult Xenopsylla cheopis are about 1.5 to 4mm in length and have a laterally compressed body. Like all fleas, X. cheopis adults are wingless. Adults vary from light brown to dark brown in order to camouflage themselves in the host's fur. Adult Xenopsylla cheopis lack both genal and pronotal ctendium (combs of bristles in the front and back). Males and females are sexually dimorphic. Females have dark-colored spermatheca that resemble small sacs, a distinguishing characteristic of this species. Males have complex genitalia that are easily distinguishable from the females'. Larvae are 4.5 mm long and resemble worms; they are slender, white, eyeless, and legless. Each has fourteen bristled segments. During the last larval instar, they molt and form cocoons that are silky and covered in debris from surroundings.

Range length: 1.5 to 4 mm.

Sexual Dimorphism: sexes shaped differently

Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; bilateral symmetry

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
editor
Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Reproduction

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No information is available on the mating systems of these fleas.

After copulating with a male the female is ready to lay her eggs. She does this at frequent intervals while feeding. Xenopsylla cheopis prefers temperatures of 65 to 80°F with about 70% humidity for egg laying. Higher or lower temperatures inhibit females from laying their eggs. Eggs usually do not hatch on the hosts, rather on their nests since fleas are nidiculous parasites (they live on host's nests).

Breeding season: These fleas breed year round, as long as the temperature and humidity favor egg-laying.

Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; year-round breeding ; sexual ; fertilization (Internal ); oviparous

Xenopsylla cheopis is distinct from other fleas in that it has a very large egg. Studies demonstrate that eggs of X. cheopis obtain extra nutrients from their mother, hence explaining the abnormally large egg. Once eggs are laid, however, they receive no further support from their parents.

Parental Investment: pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female)

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Trivedi, J. 2003. "Xenopsylla cheopis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Xenopsylla_cheopis.html
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Janki Trivedi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Teresa Friedrich, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Allison Poor, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Brief Summary

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Xenopsylla cheopis, the Oriental rat flea, is best known as the vector for the bacteria Yersinia pestis from rats to humans, and for spreading the resulting plague (black death) across Asia and Europe in the middle ages. Today the Oriental rat flea can be found in temperate climates, but more often inhabits warm, tropical and subtropical regions, since it needs warm temperatures to pupate. Like all fleas, Xenopsylla cheopis has mouthparts adapted to cutting through skin and sucking up blood that has pooled. In feeding, it secretes saliva into the wound to prevent the blood from coagulating. Along with the saliva, the flea secretes any bacteria it may have picked up by eating the blood of an infected individual into the host. When Y. pestis pathogens enter the gut of the flea, they multiply quickly, blocking food from entering the digestive system. This triggers the hungry flea to bite a new host, further spreading the bacteria. The Oriental rat flea uses many different mammals as hosts, including rats and humans, and is known also to carry the murine typhus pathogen (Rickettsia typhi) and the mouse and rat tapeworms (Hymenolepis diminut and H. nana). (Trivedi 2003; Wikipedia 2012)

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Oriental rat flea

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The Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis), also known as the tropical rat flea or the rat flea, is a parasite of rodents, primarily of the genus Rattus, and is a primary vector for bubonic plague and murine typhus. This occurs when a flea that has fed on an infected rodent bites a human, although this flea can live on any warm blooded mammal.[2][3]

Body structure

The Oriental rat flea has no genal or pronotal combs. This characteristic can be used to differentiate the Oriental rat flea from the cat flea, dog flea, and other fleas.The flea's body is about one tenth of an inch long (about 2.5 mm). Its body is constructed to make it easier to jump long distances. The flea's body consists of three regions: head, thorax, and abdomen. The head and the thorax have rows of bristles (called combs), and the abdomen consists of eight visible segments.A flea's mouth has two functions: one for squirting saliva or partly digested blood into the bite, and one for sucking up blood from the host. This process mechanically transmits pathogens that may cause diseases it might carry. Fleas smell exhaled carbon dioxide from humans and animals and jump rapidly to the source to feed on the newly found host. The flea is wingless so it can not fly, but it can jump long distances with the help of small, powerful legs. A flea's leg consists of four parts: the part that is closest to the body is the coxa; next are the femur, tibia, and tarsus. A flea can use its legs to jump up to 200 times its own body length (about 20 in or 50 cm).[4]

Life cycle

Male and female Xenopsylla cheopis

There are four stages in a flea's life. The first stage is the egg stage. Microscopic white eggs fall easily from the female to the ground or from the animal she lays on. If they are laid on an animal, they soon fall off in the dust or in the animal's bedding. If the eggs do fall immediately on the ground, then they fall into crevices on the floor where they will be safe until they hatch one to ten days later (depending on the environment that they live in, it may take longer to hatch). They hatch into a larva that looks very similar to a worm and is about two millimeters long. It only has a small body and a mouth part. At this stage, the flea does not drink blood; instead it eats dead skin cells, flea droppings, and other smaller parasites lying around them in the dust. When the larva is mature it makes a silken cocoon around itself and pupates. The flea remains a pupa from one week to six months changing in a process called metamorphosis. When the flea emerges, it begins the final cycle, called the adult stage. A flea can now suck blood from hosts and mate with other fleas. A single female flea can mate once and lay eggs every day with up to 50 eggs per day.[5][6]

Experimentally, it has been shown that the fleas flourish in dry climatic conditions with temperatures of 20–25 °C (68–77 °F),[7] they can live up to a year and can stay in the cocoon stage for up to a year if the conditions are not favourable.

History

The Oriental rat flea was collected in Shendi, Sudan by Charles Rothschild along with Karl Jordan and described in 1903.[8] He named it cheopis after the Cheops pyramids.[9]

Disease transmission

This species can act as a vector for plague, Yersinia pestis, Rickettsia typhi and also act as a host for the tapeworms Hymenolepis diminuta and Hymenolepis nana. Diseases can be transmitted from one generation of fleas to the next through the eggs.[10]

Gallery

Images of Xenopsylla cheopis

References

  1. ^ N. C. Rothschild (1903). "New species of Siphonaptera from Egypt and the Soudan". Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. 39: 83–87. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.17671.
  2. ^ Boyer, Sebastien; Gillespie, Thomas R.; Miarinjara, Adélaïde (1 July 2022). "Xenopsylla cheopis (rat flea)". Trends in Parasitology. 38 (7): 607–608. doi:10.1016/j.pt.2022.03.006. ISSN 1471-4922. PMID 35527197. S2CID 248570009. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  3. ^ Feldman, Sanford H.; Easton, David N. (1 January 2006). "Chapter 17 - Occupational Health and Safety". The Laboratory Rat (Second ed.). Academic Press. pp. 565–586. ISBN 978-0-12-074903-4. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  4. ^ Robinson, William H. (14 April 2005). Urban Insects and Arachnids: A Handbook of Urban Entomology. Cambridge University Press. p. 378. ISBN 978-1-139-44347-0. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  5. ^ "CDC - DPDx - Fleas". www.cdc.gov. 16 January 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  6. ^ "How fleas spread disease | CDC". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 13 August 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  7. ^ J. F. D. Shrewsbury (2005). A History of Bubonic Plague in the British Isles. Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-521-02247-7.
  8. ^ "Collections". www.nhm.ac.uk.
  9. ^ Marren, Peter; Mabey, Richard (2010). Bugs Britannica. Chatto & Windus. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-0-7011-8180-2.
  10. ^ A. Farhang-Azad, R. Traub & S. Baqar (1985). "Transovarial transmission of murine typhus rickettsiae in Xenopsylla cheopis fleas". Science. 227 (4686): 543–545. Bibcode:1985Sci...227..543F. doi:10.1126/science.3966162. PMID 3966162.

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Oriental rat flea: Brief Summary

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The Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis), also known as the tropical rat flea or the rat flea, is a parasite of rodents, primarily of the genus Rattus, and is a primary vector for bubonic plague and murine typhus. This occurs when a flea that has fed on an infected rodent bites a human, although this flea can live on any warm blooded mammal.

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