The parasites that can be found in the mus musculus house mice

Abstract

Knowing the parasites that Mus musculus, the house mouse, can carry is important both for the reliability of the experiments and for public health. In this review, a list of endo and ectoparasite species that can be carried on M. musculus is given and attention is drawn to the zoonotic species that pose a danger to public health. Various databases, including PubMed, Researchgate, Sciencedirect, Google Scholar, and Pubmed Central, were used to collect the data. Parasite species detected in M. musculus are presented in a table that provides localization and country information. The zoonotic species in the created table were investigated again and their related diseases were mentioned briefly. As a result of the literature review, 2 species of Acantocephala, 15 species of Trematoda, 18 species of Cestoda, 56 species of Nematoda, 23 species of ectoparasites and 9 species of protozoans were found. 17 species were identified at the genus level in the total of 91 species of helminths. It has been reported that mice can be artificially infected in the laboratory with five helminth species. It was concluded that laboratory mice can be the host of at least 109 different types of parasites in total. Among the ectoparasites carried by the house mouse, Xenopsylla cheopis, Nosopsyllus spp., and Rhipicephalus spp. species are vectors for important zoonotic diseases. Among endoparasites, 12 helminth species and 2 protozoan species can cause disease in humans as well. It will be beneficial to inform the public about these infections.