Developing effective rodent control strategies to reduce disease risk in ecologically and culturally diverse rural landscapes

从啮齿动物传播给人类的疾病是对健康的严重威胁，在低收入国家风险最高。啮齿动物传播感染(RBI)的风险取决于受感染的啮齿动物的数量，以及社会文化习俗和信仰如何影响人与啮齿动物的互动。许多与疾病传播有关的啮齿动物物种也是以农作物和储存的食物为食的害虫，因此，减少啮齿动物数量的管理可能会对健康和福祉产生广泛的影响。然而，有效控制啮齿动物种群是具有挑战性的。繁殖和邻近种群的迁徙可能会迅速抵消控制的影响。在农业部门，主要是在亚洲，开发了利用对啮齿动物在哪里和何时繁殖的生态理解的创新方法，社区共同努力，有针对性地控制和显著减少作物损害。然而，这种技术在非洲发展很差，它们降低RBI风险的潜力尚不清楚。在某些情况下，在控制后改变啮齿动物的活动可能会增加疾病在啮齿动物种群中的传播和流行率，从而潜在地增加对人类的风险。最终，该项目旨在通过增加制定适用于当地条件和社区的全面啮齿动物管理所需的知识和专业知识来减少非洲RBI的风险。与坦桑尼亚和马达加斯加的社区合作，在项目的第一阶段，我们将解决具体的悬而未决的问题，而在第二阶段，我们将开发和测试啮齿动物管理策略。我们将解决的两个问题是：在局部控制后，啮齿动物的活动如何变化，以及控制措施如何影响啮齿动物种群中RBI的流行？为了确保我们的方法具有广泛的相关性，我们将研究具有重大影响和不同生态环境的啮齿动物物种和疾病。我们将重点关注非洲的关键害虫物种多哺乳动物小鼠和全球重要的入侵害虫黑鼠，并考虑三种RBI：鼠疫、钩端螺旋体病和立克次体病，它们在流行病学的关键方面有所不同。我们将结合实地研究和复杂的计算机模型，探索在一年中不同地点和不同时间进行控制对啮齿动物的活动、数量和RBI流行的影响。这些结果将为生态和流行病学因素如何影响不同控制策略对RBI和啮齿动物损害的影响提供重要的见解。我们还将与当地社区合作，使用一系列方法来解决三个进一步的问题：社区如何感知啮齿动物的健康威胁，社区目前如何与啮齿动物互动和管理，以及不同的管理策略的可行性如何？由于有效的控制战略必须为当地社区所接受和可持续，我们需要了解当地的看法和做法。例如，在农业周期的特定关键时期，对劳动力的高要求可能意味着一些啮齿动物控制战略是不可行的。在该项目的第一阶段，这项研究的洞察力将被用来为社区主导的啮齿动物管理战略试验的发展提供信息。将监测这些试验对啮齿动物数量和RBI流行的影响，并将结果用于改进和测试我们的计算机模型。我们将利用这项比较研究来确定决定一项战略的有效性或采纳程度的共同特征。为了确保我们的研究为政策提供信息，我们将与涉及农业、卫生和环境的服务提供商举办研讨会。在这些部门中，我们将探索当前的态度、政策和沟通做法，并提供适应性管理方法方面的培训。我们的项目还将通过合作和培训来建设研究能力。

Diseases transmitted from rodents to humans are a serious threat to health, with the highest risk in low-income countries. The risk from rodent-borne infections (RBI) depends on the abundance of infected rodents, as well as how socio-cultural practices and beliefs influence human-rodent interactions. Many rodent species implicated in disease transmission are also pests that feed on crops and stored food, and consequently management to reduce rodent numbers could have a wide impact on health and well-being.However, controlling rodent populations effectively is challenging. Breeding and movement from adjacent populations may rapidly cancel out the impact of control. Innovative approaches that exploit ecological understanding of where and when rodents breed have been developed in the agricultural sector, primarily in Asia, with communities working together to target control and significantly reduce crop damage. However, such techniques are poorly developed in Africa, and their potential to reduce the risk from RBI is unknown. In some circumstances, changes to rodent movements following control could increase disease transmission and prevalence in rodent populations, potentially increasing risk to humans. Ultimately, this project aims to reduce the risk from RBI in Africa by increasing the knowledge and expertise needed to develop holistic rodent management applicable for local conditions and communities. Working with communities in Tanzania and Madagascar, in the first stage of the project we will address specific unanswered questions, whilst in the second phase we will develop and test rodent management strategies.Two questions we will address are: how do rodent movements change after localised control, and how does control influence the prevalence of RBI in rodent populations? To make sure our approach is widely relevant, we will work with rodent species and diseases that have large impacts and contrasting ecologies. We will focus on the multi-mammate mouse, a key pest species in Africa, and the black rat, a globally important invasive pest, and consider three RBI: plague, leptospirosis and rickettsioses, which differ in key aspects of their epidemiology. We will combine field studies with sophisticated computer models to explore how control in different locations and at different times of the year impacts on rodent movement, abundance and the prevalence of RBI. The results will provide important insights into how ecological and epidemiological factors influence the impact of different control strategies on RBI and rodent damage.We will also work with local communities using a range of approaches to address three further questions: how do communities perceive the health threat from rodents, how do communities currently interact with and manage rodents, and how feasible are different management strategies? As effective control strategies have to be accepted and sustainable for local communities, we need to understand local perceptions and practices. For example, high labour requirements during specific key periods in the agricultural cycle may mean that some rodent control strategies are not feasible. The insights from this research during the first phase of the project will be used to inform the development of community-led trials of rodent management strategies. The impact of these trials on rodent abundance and the prevalence of RBI will be monitored, and the results used to refine and test our computer models. We will use this comparative study to identify common features that determine the effectiveness or uptake of a strategy. To ensure our research informs policies, we will conduct workshops with service providers involved in agriculture, health and the environment. Across these sectors we will explore current attitudes, policies and communication practices, and provide training in adaptive management approaches. Our project will also build research capacity through collaboration and training.