[Effort to eradicate a focus of tularemia and leptospirosis]

An endemic area of tularemia and field fever was submitted to a complex surveillance over a period of more than 10 years. In 1977 an epizootic outbreak of tularemia appeared in all four localities studied. The infection rate in small mammals exceeded 10%. F. tularensis was isolated also from different species of ectoparasites. During 1978 the epizootic stopped in 3 foci, but continued to spread in one. Rodenticides (zinc phosphide) were therefore applied in this focus twice annually for 2 1/2 years. Since 1978, tularemia infections disappeared in small mammals as well as in man. The application of rodenticides did not influence the circulation of Leptospira grippotyphosa in small mammals. Their infection rate ranged between 3 and 6%. The reason for this striking difference is seen in the different pathogenesis and transmission of both infections.