Rat Control and Bartonella
Byers KA, Lee MJ, Hill JE, Fernando C, Speerin L, Donovan CM, Patrick DM, Himsworth CG. 2022. Emerging Infectious Diseases 28(8): 1659–1663
We investigated the effects of culling on Bartonella spp. bacteria carriage among urban rats in Canada. We found that the odds of Bartonella spp. carriage increased across city blocks except those in which culling occurred. Removing rats may have prevented an increase in Bartonella spp. prevalence, potentially lowering human health risks.
Trapping locations for Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) caught in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A) Trapping sites consisting of 3 contiguous city blocks. Each site was designated as a control or intervention site. Control sites did not involve culling (lethal animal removal); intervention sites included culling in the central block. B) Depiction of the study timeline. We first baited traps without capture to acclimatize rats to traps, then trapped and tagged rats with numbered ear tags and released the rats to their site of capture. After an intervention that involved culling rats in intervention sites, we resampled 3–6 weeks later to determine whether Bartonella spp. carriage differed between trapping periods before and after the intervention.