For 2300 years, illness associated with rat bites has been recognized in India, which is believed to be the country of origin for the disease. The first recorded description of rat-bite fever was in lectures by a physician at Yale in the early 19th century. It was not until 1902 that Japanese workers describing the clinical entity in a European journal coined the term Rattenbisskrankheit, or rat-bite fever. Rat-bite fever comprises two clinically similar but distinct bacterial diseases, caused by two unrelated agents, Streptobacillus moniliformis and Spirillum minus. The organisms are distributed worldwide, with S. moniliformis more common in the United States and Europe and S. minus more common in the Far East.

Rat-bite fevers are most frequently associated with the bite or, less frequently, a scratch from laboratory or wild rats. A number of reported cases were not associated with rat bites or contact, although all patients had a history of occupational exposure to rat-infested areas or contaminated materials. Disease caused by these agents has also followed contact with a variety of other species, including mice, gerbils, guinea pigs, squirrels, dogs, cats, ferrets, turkeys, and weasels, all of which presumably had contact with rats or contaminated materials. Estimates are that upward of 14 000 rat bites occur annually in the United States, most of them to individuals of low socioeconomic status in cities.