From USA TODAY
The disgusting truth about NYC rats
Rats, rodents, city kitties — call them what you will, but a scurrying furball is as common a sighting in New York City as taxi cabs and lost tourists. But just how disgusting are rats, really? For the first time, a team of researchers has tested rats in Manhattan and catalogued the viruses and bacteria they carry. The verdict is not pretty — or clean. Columbia University researchers spent a year collecting 133 rats. They found that the specimens were carrying food-borne illnesses like salmonella, as well as fever-inducing illnesses. Most alarmingly (and well-distilled by the New York Times), “novel” pathogens and bacteria were discovered — ones that had never been seen before in New York, or to science.
In all my years, I had no idea, Los Angeles had some monster rat problem (people not included). Mice, yes. Rats?
I’ve heard of the NYC rats! They’re huge! Or at least pictures I saw of them.
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