| fleas on roof rats in six areas of los angeles county, california: their potential role in the transmission of plague and murine typhus to humans. | roof rats (rattus rattus) in southern california are rarely involved with plague epizootics and murine typhus. little evidence exists implicating these rodents as sources of human infection. this might be explained by the absence of fleas capable of transmitting these 2 diseases. from february 1981 through january 1982, roof rats were live-trapped and examined for fleas each month in 4 areas of los angeles county. two other areas were trapped for 9 and 3 months respectively. areas sampled were i ... | 1985 | 3985278 |