They hide in granaries and run their hundreds over farms: Australia is currently suffering from massive rat plague. The previously banned poison should now help.
They destroy crops, bite people, and transmit disease – the Australian state New South Wales He must have dealt with the worst rat plague in about 40 years.
The state is now offering farmers and producers a financial aid equivalent to about 32 million euros, state Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall told the 2GB radio station on Thursday.
This is intended to compensate for losses suffered as a result of the damage. Additionally, small businesses and households should receive discounts on purchasing traps and poisons. Farmers are supposed to receive free toxic chemical bait to “fight this pest”.
The worst epidemic since the 1980s
“We haven’t really had a pandemic of this scale since the early 1980s, and everyone was hoping that the cold winter conditions would reduce the rat population. Nothing has worked so far,” Marshall said.
He announced that he wanted approval for a previously banned poison. The so-called bromadialone is the “strongest mouse poison” you can get in the world. Rodent plague has been spreading in the state for months.
From early January to late April, 23 cases of leptospirosis were reported to the state health department. It is a rare disease that can lead to kidney failure and meningitis – it is most often transmitted by mice. According to the Australian news agency AAP, 11 cases were recorded in the whole of 2020.