CNH2-S: Impacts of Urban Rats and Rodent Control on Public Health and Urban Wildlife Conservation

几千年来，人类社会一直生活在与老鼠的冲突中。褐鼠(Rattus Norveicus)可以携带几种与人类共有的疾病，即与老鼠相关的人畜共患病，如钩端螺旋体病、首尔汉坦病毒和腺鼠疫。老鼠每年还造成数十亿美元的财产损失。除了身体健康风险外，长期接触老鼠及其相关的财产损失可能会成为居民心理健康的压力源。更好地了解与老鼠生活在一起会增加疾病风险和心理健康影响的过程，将有助于改善世界各地城市的公共健康。虽然人们对城市老鼠知之甚少，但对于低收入社区来说，与老鼠侵扰相关的风险往往高得不成比例，这可能是因为用于维护基础设施和控制啮齿动物数量的资源较少。在伊利诺伊州的芝加哥，社区之间的收入差距尤其普遍，这是美国人均老鼠投诉最多的城市。芝加哥的高鼠患比率和收入差距的这种组合可能会在居民接触老鼠和疾病风险方面造成进一步的不平等。频繁的老鼠负面经历也可能影响居民对其他城市野生动物物种的态度。例如，对老鼠的强烈负面态度可能与对类似的本土物种，如松鼠的负面态度有关。了解人类对老鼠和其他野生动物的态度之间的关系，将有助于减轻野生动物害虫对公众对城市自然保护支持的侵蚀影响。该奖项的目的是了解如何通过研究城市居民和褐鼠(Rattus Norveicus)之间的相互作用来减轻老鼠对公共健康的风险，并促进城市保护。具体的项目目标是：1)量化鼠患对不同社会经济背景的城市居民的身心健康、态度和虫害防治方法的影响；2)量化虫害防治举措对老鼠种群动态、老鼠疾病生态和城市捕食者健康的影响。为了实现这些目标，这项研究将整合关于老鼠、捕食者(即猫)和芝加哥社区居民的数据，这些社区的家庭收入存在差异。访谈和调查将被用来收集关于居民与老鼠的经历、心理和身体健康以及对老鼠和其他城市野生动物物种的态度的数据。在同一个街区，公民科学家将诱捕老鼠，并收集自由生活的猫的粪便样本。这些数据将被用来将当地老鼠的数量和感染率与相应的居民对老鼠的经历和态度联系起来。将根据居民接触到老鼠粪便或尿液等人畜共患病途径的经历来评估当地的老鼠感染率。将开发预测模型，以确定鼠患风险最高的社会生态环境。为了同时量化灭鼠活动对野生动物种群健康的影响，这项研究将测试通过化学灭鼠剂控制啮齿动物是否与老鼠遗传多样性的变化和大鼠和自由生活的猫体内更高的大肠杆菌感染风险有关。拟议的项目将是第一个量化人类和啮齿动物害虫之间的反馈的项目，并将促进适用于世界各地城市的生态和公共卫生知识。此外，该项目将通过改善公共健康、社会正义和对城市自然保护的支持来提供社会效益，同时为城市和少数族裔学生提供实地研究方面的特殊教育和培训机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Human societies have lived in conflict with rats for thousands of years. Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) can carry several diseases shared with humans, known as rat-associated zoonoses, such as leptospirosis, Seoul hantavirus, and bubonic plague. Rats also cause billions of dollars in property damage annually. In addition to physical health risks, chronic exposure to rats and their associated property damage can act as a mental health stressor for residents. A better understanding of what processes increase the risk of disease and mental health impacts from living with rats will help improve public health in cities around the world. While little is known about urban rats, the risks associated with rat infestations are often disproportionately high for low-income communities, likely due to fewer resources to maintain infrastructure and control rodent populations. Income disparities between neighborhoods is especially pervasive in Chicago, Illinois, the city with the most rat complaints per capita in the United States. This combination of high rat encounter rates and income disparities in Chicago likely creates further inequities in resident exposure to rats and disease risk. Frequent negative experiences with rats may also influence resident attitudes toward other species of urban wildlife. For example, strong negative attitudes about rats may be associated with negative attitudes about similar native species such as squirrels. Understanding the relationships between human attitudes about rats and other wildlife will help to mitigate any eroding effects of wildlife pests on public support for urban nature conservation.The aim of this award is to understand how to mitigate public health risks from rats and advance urban conservation by studying the interactions between urban residents and brown rats (Rattus norvegicus). The specific project goals are to: 1) quantify the impacts of rat infestations on the physical and mental health, attitudes, and approaches to pest control of socioeconomically diverse urban residents; and 2) quantify the impacts of pest control initiatives on rat population dynamics, rat disease ecology, and urban predator health. To achieve these objectives, the research will integrate data on rats, predators (i.e. cats), and residents in Chicago neighborhoods that vary in household income. Interviews and surveys will be used to collect data on resident experiences with rats, mental and physical health, and attitudes about rats and other urban wildlife species. In the same blocks, citizen scientists will trap rats and collect fecal samples from free-living cats. This data will be used to relate local rat abundance and rates of infection with corresponding resident experiences and attitudes about rats. Local rates of rat infection will be evaluated with respect to resident experiences with zoonotic pathways such as being exposed to rat feces or urine. Predictive models will be developed to identify the socio-ecological contexts in which risk from rats is highest. To simultaneously quantify the impacts of rodent control activities on wildlife population health, the research will test whether rodent control through chemical rodenticides is associated with changes in the genetic diversity of rats and higher infection risk for Escherichia coli in both rats and free-living cats. The proposed project will be the first to quantify the feedbacks between humans and rodent pests and will advance ecological and public health knowledge applicable to cities around the world. Further, the project will provide societal benefits by improving public health, social justice, and support for urban nature conservation while providing special education and training opportunities in field research for urban and minority students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.