Launching rat-killing campaign

An increasing number of rats across Bangladesh has become highly troubling for farmers and businessmen alike. From crop fields to sewers, garbage bins, food warehouses, factories, hotels-restaurants, offices, shops and homes, rat infestation is everywhere. There are some 18 species of rats found in different parts of our country. Their reproduction rate is also very high. A pair of rats can produce more than 3,000 offspring each year.
Rats carry diseases like plague, typhoid, jaundice and a number of skin diseases, and pose a health risk to people. They can also be incredibly destructive. It has been estimated that rats waste food grains worth Tk 20 billion every year in the country. Apart from granular crops, rats damage fruits, books, furniture, clothes, electric wires, machinery and various types of installations.
In Bangladesh, farmers use conventional methods of poisoning rats to save their crops, but its effectiveness is questionable. Therefore, in order to increase our crop production and to protect public health, it is time to treat the problem of rats as a national issue and launch an organised rat-killing campaign across the country.

Ashikujaman Syed,
Research Assistant,
Bioinformatics Research Lab,
Center for Research Innovation and Development (CRID),
syedashikujaman@gmail.com