VMD 512: Zoo/Wild Animal Breeding, Management, Nutrition and Health Care (1+1)

POLYPLAX SP. LOUSE INFESTATION IN BANDICOOTS

• These louse commonly are noticed in lab mouse and lab rat and also in wild rodent hosts. There are slender lice, long, yellowish brown, with well formed lateral plates on the dorsal and ventral aspects of abdomen.
• Though many rodent ectoparasites are of not host specific, the lice are generally host specific in rodents. However closely related species of rodents may be infested with the same species of louse. These are also vectors of Haemobartonella and eperythrozoon in the rodents.