Cases of a once-rare bacterial disease have been on the rise in South Texas over the last several years and now researchers with Texas A&M University have formally linked the illness to flea-infested stray cats in the Rio Grande Valley.
However, murine typhus, which is caused by Rickettsia typhi bacteria, has historically been considered endemic in deep South Texas. Some of the highest number of cases can be found in Hidalgo and Cameron counties, but also outside the Valley in places like Bexar and Nueces counties.
Between 2008 and 2023, more than 6,700 cases of typhus were reported in South Texas, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. But recently, Texas A&M researchers detected typhus bacteria-carrying fleas in a small number of stray cats collected in the Valley…