Rodent species composition in urban and forested areas in eastern Germany

Zoonoses are major concerns for public health and after the recent pandemic, have been under a global spotlight for their often unpredictable spread and rapid evolution. In particular, the relationship between wildlife biodiversity and zoonoses lies at the core of the challenges of disease dynamics in a changing world. To address the challenge of rodent-borne diseases, transmitted by rodents acting as hosts for various zoonoses and thriving in different environments, we focus on rodent species composition in European temperate forests and urban parks, where human-wildlife interactions are likely to occur. Using live-trapping, we describe rodent communities for integration into an eco-health framework.

The dataset introduced here is part of the European project BiodivERsA-BioRodDis (https://www6.inrae.fr/biodiversa-bioroddis), whose goal is to examine the connection between rodent biodiversity, the dynamics of rodent-borne diseases and temporal variations in a changing climate. We provide records of small mammals (Rodentia) captured from forested habitats, with different levels of urbanisation in northeast Germany, within the district of Potsdam (Brandenburg). The trapping took place between winter 2020 and spring 2022 at four different sites. All four sites were sampled in winter 2020, three were revisited in spring 2021 and two in autumn 2021 and spring 2022. This variation was mainly due to logistical constraints and low trapping success at some sites. Using live traps, we collected a total of 620 occurrence records of rodents, including the species Apodemus flavicollis, Apodemus agrarius, Myodes glareolus and Microtus arvalis. A subset of the captures (n = 264) was subsequently dissected for pathogen screening and gut microbiome characterisation, not reported here.