Live rats in the trap? Now what?

One person's pest is another's delicacy. Rats pose a serious problem for rice farmers in Vietnam, but they also provide a popular dish in the restaurants of Ho Chi Minh City.

A research team led by Professor Khiem of Angiang University found that some 3,300-3,500 tons of live rats are caught and traded each year in Vietnam, recording a market value of about US$2 million. People eat some 48,000 rats every day in the Mekong Delta, making humans by far the most important rat predator in Vietnam. Rat damage, nevertheless, remains a key constraint to rice production, mainly because the landscape tends to favor rat population growth. 

Rat catchers sell live rats to dealers for about US$ 0.44-0.60 /kg. Dealers discard the skin, tail and internal organs and place the dressed rat carcasses on ice for delivery to retail markets. After processing, rat meat can fetch US$1 /kg - on a par with chicken.

Rodent diseases - more than an emerging problem

While the rat-meat trade is one way to reduce infestations in rice fields, its effect on human health is a growing concern. There is little attention to hygiene during the slaughter, dressing, and cleaning of the meat, and diseases such as leptospirosis and tyhus are transmitted through rat urine, fleas, and mites. In 2001 in northeast Thailand, more than 14,000 people were infected with leptospirosis, resulting in about 360 deaths. In Laos, recent screening has identified an alarming frequency of typhus cases in humans. The time may be ripe to consider efforts to obtain funding for research and a more active information campaign on rat diseases.

Details of leptospirosis may be obtained from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/
leptospirosis_g.htm

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