Analysis of different factors contributing the rodent infestations in urban areas in Faisalabad, Pakistan

Abstract

In the last decade there is a huge increase in the human population that has witnessed the important changes in the ecology, climate and human behaviour which ultimately favours the survival and increase in the population of urban pests. More alarmingly, a dramatic expansion in the rodent’s populations is a growing threat to the humans living in different urban settings. It is supposed that several socio-economic issues, environmental factors and type of housing facilities are contributing towards this higher increase in the rodent’s population in these areas. However, urban rat control programs are still ineffective as very little is known about their ecology. This study sought to investigate the type of housing and environment factors that provide food, water, shelter and harborage to rats and mice and risk factors of rodent infestations in three of the housing systems i.e. in squatter’s settlements, departmental colonies and posh residences including bungalows in Faisalabad. A total of 720 structures (240 each) were selected from these three housing systems. Snap and live trapping of commensal rats and mice (Rattus rattus, Rattus norvegicus,Mus musculus) was carried out fortnightly from November, 2017 to October, 2018 suspecting the rats and mice population as variable as different structured housing systems. The removal data were used to estimate the size of the population of rats and mice per system. For rat and mice population estimation, Change-in-ratio (CIR) and Regression of daily capture on cumulative captures (RR) were employed. The higher number of rats/mice (814 specimens) were collected in squatter’ settlements. Among these 560, 184 and 70 specimens were of Mus musculus, Rattus rattus and Suncus murinus, respectively. The number of rodents captured from departmental colonies and posh residences/bungalows was 210 specimens (129 of M. musculus, 71 of R. rattus and 10 specimens of S. murinus) and 30 specimens of M. musculus, respectively. The major socio-economic factors contributing to these higher rodent infestations were low-grade residences with inadequate or no building maintenance measures and higher housing densities along with heterogenous breeding sites. These higher densities of rats and mice may pose a serious disease threats to human populations as they are carriers of a number of pathogens. The findings of the present study provide the specific features of rats and mice population in concern to human residences and may help to formulate controlling strategies against these culprits.