A field and a household survey, the latter of which included inspections and interviews with the residents of a totalof 1370 properties, were conducted in 2004 in 30 villages of the city of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, in ...A field and a household survey, the latter of which included inspections and interviews with the residents of a totalof 1370 properties, were conducted in 2004 in 30 villages of the city of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, in order to assessthe degree of rodent infestation and to identify potential factors influencing infestations. Roof rats, Rattus rattus,and the Polynesian rat, Rattus exulans, were the only rodents found in the city, and trapping results showed a cleardominance of roof rats (80–90% of all individuals). Measurements of rodent activity using tracking patchescorrelated positively with the trapping data, and revealed a significantly higher degree of rat infestation during therainy season (September) than during the dry season (November). If households in the vicinity of the samplinglocations were considered, villagers’ accounts of indoor rodent infestations recorded during the household surveycorrelated positively with measurements of rodent activity. At least every second household reported indoorinfestations. Using explorative statistical analyses (classification trees, factor analysis) we checked the predictiveor explanatory value of up to 28 variables assessed during household inspections for villagers’ observations onrodent infestation as the dependent variable. Trophic factors such as exposed food (indoors) and garbage (outdoors),and structural features such as open ceilings (indoors) and rat harborage in gardens (outdoors) ranked highest asexplanatory variables. Assessment of a small sample of roof rat droppings collected inside houses revealed thepresence of the potential disease agents Salmonella javiana, Cryptosporidium parvum, Giardia duodenalis and theparasitic nematode Calodium hepaticum (syn. Capillaria hepatica). These results underline the need for anappropriate rodent management strategy for the city, whereby simple sanitation and rodent-proofing measurescould be cheap means of reducing rat infestation rates.展开更多
文摘A field and a household survey, the latter of which included inspections and interviews with the residents of a totalof 1370 properties, were conducted in 2004 in 30 villages of the city of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, in order to assessthe degree of rodent infestation and to identify potential factors influencing infestations. Roof rats, Rattus rattus,and the Polynesian rat, Rattus exulans, were the only rodents found in the city, and trapping results showed a cleardominance of roof rats (80–90% of all individuals). Measurements of rodent activity using tracking patchescorrelated positively with the trapping data, and revealed a significantly higher degree of rat infestation during therainy season (September) than during the dry season (November). If households in the vicinity of the samplinglocations were considered, villagers’ accounts of indoor rodent infestations recorded during the household surveycorrelated positively with measurements of rodent activity. At least every second household reported indoorinfestations. Using explorative statistical analyses (classification trees, factor analysis) we checked the predictiveor explanatory value of up to 28 variables assessed during household inspections for villagers’ observations onrodent infestation as the dependent variable. Trophic factors such as exposed food (indoors) and garbage (outdoors),and structural features such as open ceilings (indoors) and rat harborage in gardens (outdoors) ranked highest asexplanatory variables. Assessment of a small sample of roof rat droppings collected inside houses revealed thepresence of the potential disease agents Salmonella javiana, Cryptosporidium parvum, Giardia duodenalis and theparasitic nematode Calodium hepaticum (syn. Capillaria hepatica). These results underline the need for anappropriate rodent management strategy for the city, whereby simple sanitation and rodent-proofing measurescould be cheap means of reducing rat infestation rates.
