Hunan Province said yesterday it has taken effective measures to
prevent epidemics after about two billion rats chomped through
crops around Dongting Lake.
China's Ministry of Agriculture and the Hunan provincial
government have allocated 900,000 yuan to eradicate the rats around
Dongting, China's second biggest freshwater lake.
``It's not possible for rodent-borne diseases to break out in
the lake area,'' said Chen Xiaochun, vice director of the
provincial health department.
Health authorities have been watching the situation closely
since the rats fled their flooded island homes and invaded 22
counties last week.
Their observations are reported daily to the provincial health
department and the public.
Meanwhile, local health and disease prevention and control
authorities have intensified management of raticide and pesticide,
for fear they might contaminate food and water, Chen added.
No human case of rat-borne disease has been reported in Hunan
since 1944.
The provincial government also ruled out widespread suspicions
that rats flooded the area because one of their natural enemies --
snakes -- had been served at dinner tables.
``The Dongting Lake area is not an ideal habitat for snakes,''
said Deng Sanlong, a top forestry official in the province, ``and
the only two species that inhabit the region feed largely on fish
and frogs.''
He said the top enemy of the rats are hawks that spend winter in
the wetland around the lake but fly away in spring.
(Shanghai Daily July 20, 2007)