Diseases found in fleas

Our pets can help us feel happy, but tests are showing just how sick they can make us.

Researchers studying emerging infectious diseases say new laboratory methods have shown the presence of flea-borne diseases.

They have found what they consider high levels of nasty bacteria in fleas living on pets.

Cats and dogs checked at vet clinics in Matamata, New Plymouth and Lower Hutt yielded between one and 13 "cat fleas" each. The researchers looked for the DNA of three bacteria linked to diseases.

They found that 19 per cent of the fleas had DNA of the R. felis bacterium, 11 per cent had B. henselae and 7 per cent had B. clarridgeiae.

Cat fleas prefer pets' blood, but will "readily feed on people", said Professor Patrick Kelly, of the West Indies, and his fellow researchers, reporting their findings in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

"With the high prevalences of [the three bacteria] in cat fleas and their wide distribution in New Zealand, it would seem likely that people are not uncommonly infected."

As well as catching the diseases from fleas, people can get B. henselae directly from infected cats who scratch or bite them, or who lick their open wounds.