Municipal

Recently, "Spillover to the human population" has taken on a far more important meaning when one considers the possibilities of a deadly virus being spread by rats as occurred with bubonic plague which killed millions in the past.

Today, rodents have sewer systems connecting all parts of a city which can even connect to other towns and cities, so transmission would certainly be quicker. This makes rodent control a critically important health issue to eliminate this type of transmission. Unfortunately politicians see this issue as "it won't happen during my term, let's save some money".

A scientific study has just been released on pathogens New York City's rats carry. A synopsis of that report by Mother Nature Network is:

Rats in Manhattan are reservoirs for a suite of germs, including E. coli and Salmonella, the research found. Some of the critters were even carrying Seoul hantavirus, which can cause Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever and kidney failure in humans and has never before been documented in New York.

"Rats are sentinels for human disease," W. Ian Lipkin, director of Columbia University's Center for Infection and Immunity and senior author of the study, said in a statement. "They're all over the city; uptown, downtown, underground. Everywhere they go, they collect microbes and amplify them. And because these animals live close to people, there is ample opportunity for exchange." [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species]

The scientists trapped 133 rats from five locations in Manhattan and took DNA samples from the rodents' tissue, feces, urine and saliva. They found 15 of 20 of the bacterial and protozoan pathogens tested for, including E. coli, Salmonella and Clostridium difficile all of which can cause mild to life-threatening infections in people.

The U-Trap-It System provides an alternate approach to traditional municipal rodent management. It's an approach that has been proven to work for twenty years in food and pharmaceutical facilities. Nearly all of the Top 100 Food Processors (Food Processing Magazine) in the U.S. use the U-Trap-It System. In fact, over 70% of the food you consume was made at a facility using the U-Trap-It System or the ingredients in that food came from one using the System. That also goes for your pets too.

The System has also been in use in municipal rodent control now for ten years. The system eases tracking of thousands of rodent stations. The results of using it in municipal rodent control have been outstanding. It has reduced property owner's rat complaints by 95%. Of the remaining complaints, 90% of those are a property owner complaint concerning a neighbor's yard.

¹Norway Rat Population in Baltimore, Maryland, 2004 - Judith D. Easterbrook, Timothy Shields, Sabra L. Klein,
Gregory E. Glass. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases. September 1, 2005, 5(3): 296-299. doi:10.1089/vbz.2005.5.296