{"id":3295,"date":"2020-11-23T12:14:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T10:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/?p=3295"},"modified":"2020-11-23T12:17:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T10:17:28","slug":"invasive-rodents-widely-traded-in-gauteng-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/invasive-rodents-widely-traded-in-gauteng-province\/","title":{"rendered":"Invasive rodents widely traded in the pet trade industry in Gauteng Province"},"content":{"rendered":"

The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus<\/em>) and the house mouse (Mus musculus<\/em>) are some of the world\u2019s worst invasive rodent species. They are known to spread zoonotic diseases, damage crops and \u00a0household items, outcompete native species for food, and prey on some bird species. These undomesticated species, which live closely alongside and benefit from humans, have been accidentally introduced into South Africa largely through the shipping trade, and are currently widely sold as pets in the pet trade industry such as breeders, pet shops and online.<\/p>\n

Mrs Ndivhuwo Shivambu (C\u2219I\u2219B PhD student), Mr Tinyiko C Shivambu (C\u2219I\u2219B PhD student), Dr Rolanda Julius (former C\u2219I\u2219B student) and Prof Christian Chimimba (C\u2219I\u2219B Core Team member) surveyed pet shops across the Gauteng Province and collected rodent samples for genetic identification.<\/p>\n

The \u00a0results showed that some rodent individuals labelled as \u2018small rats\u2019 were in fact strains of M. musculus <\/em>and other samples were identified as R. norvegicus <\/em>strains. <\/em>The results showed that pet shop owners lack the taxonomic expertise to identify the rodent species that they trade in. The rodents sampled were genetically affiliated to both wild and laboratory strains of M. musculus <\/em>and R. norvegicus<\/em>. \u00a0This suggests that pet rodents are sourced from both the wild and laboratories, with those from the latter possibly being released into the wild.<\/p>\n

The study recommends continued monitoring on the sale of these invasive rodents to prevent further introduction and spread. The results in this study may be useful for contributing to the development of national policies and regulations for invasive rodents in the pet trade industry in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the lack of taxonomic expertise in the pet trade industry, we believe that the pet trade industry will contribute to the future invasion of these and other species. It is therefore important to develop an accurate inventory of non-native pets as this can be used for educational purposes, the development of policies and regulations, appropriate decision-making and management strategies,\u201d <\/em>explains Ndivhuwo Shivambu.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the full paper for more information<\/h4>\n

Maligana N, Julius RS, Shivambu TC, & Chimimba CT (2020). Genetic identification of freely traded synanthropic invasive murid rodents in pet shops in Gauteng Province, South Africa. African Zoology<\/em> 55: 149\u2013154, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/15627020.2019.1704632<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information, contact Mrs Ndivhuwo Shivambu (ndivhuwomaligana@gmail.com<\/a>) or Professor Christian Chimimba (chris.chimimba@up.ac.za<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Pet
Ndivhuwo Shivambu collecting tissue samples from pet rats (left) and mice (right) traded in pet shops in Gauteng Province. (Photograph credit: Shivambu N).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Pet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the house mouse (Mus musculus) are some of the world\u2019s worst invasive rodent species. They are known to spread zoonotic diseases, damage crops and \u00a0household items, outcompete native species for food, and prey on some bird species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":3297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[71666,3256],"tags":[76003,76005,76006,76007,76004,72790,9858],"class_list":["post-3295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-71666","category-news","tag-cytochrome-b","tag-murids","tag-mus","tag-pet-trade","tag-phylogeny","tag-rattus","tag-south-africa","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3295"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3301,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3295\/revisions\/3301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}