Is respiratory disease contagious in rats?

September 30th, 2009 | by admin |


Mycoplasma pulmonis which is the major respiratory problem that rats will face is NOT contagious because all rats are born with a high chance of having this "virus" lie dormant in their system.

When Myco flares up there are many things that could cause it: cage conditions, overcrowding, poor bedding -> pine, cedar because of the high dust and phenol levels, bad breeding, temperature changes, stress levels….there are many things that can set it off.

But because its almost a given that rats have dormant Myco in their systems its not actually contagious.

Edit: Sorry for the wrong usage of words here. Yes, Mycoplasma is a bacterium but it is different from most bacterium because it lacks a cell wall. As quoted from Debbie Duccomun "(…the disease is so common, you should just assume your rats have it.)" because most rats are born with this disease, thus are unable to contract it *again* from another rat with a flareup.

  1. 5 Responses to “Is respiratory disease contagious in rats?”

  2. By animallover_orange3 on Sep 30, 2009 | Reply

    you know, i dont think so because they usually get it when old. probably not because its not ppossible to spread. so no…hope this helped!
    References :
    researcher of rats

  3. By Kate on Sep 30, 2009 | Reply

    Mycoplasma pulmonis which is the major respiratory problem that rats will face is NOT contagious because all rats are born with a high chance of having this "virus" lie dormant in their system.

    When Myco flares up there are many things that could cause it: cage conditions, overcrowding, poor bedding -> pine, cedar because of the high dust and phenol levels, bad breeding, temperature changes, stress levels….there are many things that can set it off.

    But because its almost a given that rats have dormant Myco in their systems its not actually contagious.

    Edit: Sorry for the wrong usage of words here. Yes, Mycoplasma is a bacterium but it is different from most bacterium because it lacks a cell wall. As quoted from Debbie Duccomun "(…the disease is so common, you should just assume your rats have it.)" because most rats are born with this disease, thus are unable to contract it *again* from another rat with a flareup.
    References :
    Proud Rat Owner
    <3 Beatrix, Boo, Daisy, Dixie, Dexter and Taz
    RIP – Jerry the Rat and Tiny.

  4. By Andrasteschild on Sep 30, 2009 | Reply

    Not usually but it does depend on the disease check out

    http://www.nfrs.org/respdisease.html

    there is a lot of good info in this article
    References :
    http://www.nfrs.org/respdisease.html

  5. By AWS on Sep 30, 2009 | Reply

    What do you mean by "disease"? Infections can be contagious.

    BTW, mycoplasma is a *bacteria*, not a virus, as another poster stated. Thus there are some anti-biotics that may suppress the symptoms temporarily. But unlike most bacterial infections, myco is not curable.

    Also, technically, mycoplasma *is* contagious (which is why most rats have it). But they contract it from their mothers during birth. So unless your rat is still in utero, it makes little sense to worry about contagiousness. (Lab rats are free of myco because they are descended from rats whose mothers were sacrificed by delivering their babies via cesarean while they were submerged in disinfectant.)
    References :

  6. By shysmami05 on Sep 30, 2009 | Reply

    well, when i worked at petco, when we would get one rat with upper respiratory infection, we ended up with alot of others with it. now, they could have came to us that way & it took a few days to show up, or it got spread through the ventilation systems.
    References :

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