Their primary hosts are vertebrates; Leishmania commonly infects hyraxes, canids, rodents, and humans.

Some species may also infect small rodents which are normally prey of the reptile or bird species.

Arenavirus is a genus of virus that infects rodents and occasionally humans.

Arenaviruses persist in nature by infecting rodents first and then transmitted into humans.

H. microstoma primarily infects rodents, and is only very rarely found in humans.

Besides humans, it may infect rodents, dogs, cats, horses, cattle, and swine.

Malaria parasites that infect rodents are widely used as models in research, such as P. berghei.

The disease was first identified in laboratory monkeys, hence its name, but in its natural state it seems to infect rodents more often than primates.

Researchers say it should be no surprise that a virus capable of infecting multiple rodents in Africa could find a ready host in a rodent here.