Suchergebnisse

Effective management of rodent pests requires an ecological understanding of how they move through their environment, and how those movements influence the invasion, persistence, or reinvasion of problematic colonies. Traditional methodologies used to describe rodent movement patterns, such as mark-recapture, are hindered by their time-consuming nature and limited geographic scope. As such, our understanding of how rodents interact with urban environments remains limited. Population genetic principles and tools have the capacity to greatly increase our understanding of rodent population dynamics, ecological relationships, and movements across space but this field is often unapproachable to non-scientist pest management professionals. In this paper we aim to promote collaborative and integrative rodent pest management by introducing relevant population genetic principles, providing examples of their applications in studies of urban brown rats, and proposing future initiatives that link scientific, private, and government entities. Using a densely-sampled brown rat population in the city of Vancouver, BC we show how genetic relationships among individual brown rats can be leveraged to understand the geographic distribution of genetic clusters (i.e., colonies), natural barriers to migration, and the spatial scale of dispersal. We describe how these results can be exploited by PMPs to directly inform the creation of management units and decrease the likelihood of rapid post-treatment reinvasion. Further, we discuss the difficulties inherent in population genetic studies and the potential for high-quality model sites to develop generalizable strategies. Overall, we hope to expand the toolbox of pest management professionals, foster collaboration, and move towards more informed and sustainable management strategies.

Abstract
Rats evoke public health and economic concern in cities globally. Rapid urbanization exacerbates pre-existing rat problems, requiring the development and adoption of more effective methods of prevention, monitoring and mitigation. While previous studies have indicated that city-wide municipal management approaches often fail, such outcomes are often left without specific explanation. To determine how municipalities could more effectively develop and implement large-scale approaches, we interviewed stakeholders in municipal rat management programs to document their opinions, recommendations and the challenges they face. Using a thematic framework method, this study collates and analyzes in-depth interviews with 39 stakeholders from seven cities across the United States. Overall, stakeholders' recommendations for municipal rat management aligned with many conceptual attributes of effective management reported in the literature. Specifically, stakeholders highlighted the need to prioritize the reduction of resources available to sustain rat infestations (e.g. food, water and harborage), to focus on proactive (vs. reactive) measures, and to implement large-scale data collection to increase the efficiency of cross-city rat control. Stakeholders also suggested novel approaches to management, such as mitigating rat-associated risks for vulnerable populations specifically and developing tailored initiatives based on the specific needs and desires of residents. We synthesize these recommendations in light of reported barriers, such as resource limitations, and consider several opportunities that may help municipalities reconceptualize their approaches to city-wide rat management.