Rats and disease

There is a rise in concern over rodents as a health risk in rice agroecosystems because of the increase in travel of people between rural and urban areas and between countries; increased population density that amplifies the ability of a disease to spread through a population; and increased clearance of natural habitats that promotes rodent-human contact. In poorer communities, if a rodent zoonotic causes disability for a poor farmer for a month at a key time, then it may lead to no crop, a late crop, or reduced crop yield. Each can lead to debt treadmill.

Diseases such as leptospirosis and typhus are transmitted through rat urine, fleas, and mites. In 2001 in northeast Thailand, over 14,000 people were infected with leptospirosis resulting in about 360 deaths. In Laos, recent screening has identified an alarming frequency of typhus cases in humans. The time may be ripe to consider efforts to obtain funding for research and a more active information campaign on rat diseases.

References:

Leirs H, Singleton GR. 2006. Parasites and pest population management. In: Mammals and macroparasites: from evolutionary ecology to management (Eds. S Morand, B Krasnov, and R Poulin), pp. 565-591, Springer-Verlag: Tokyo.

Details of Leptospirosis may be obtained from  http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/leptospirosis_g.htm