Why Rat Control?

 
 
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 Alberta's Rat Control Program Main Page
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  • Albertans have always enjoyed living without the menace of rats. In 1950, when rats arrived overland from Eastern Canada, the provincial rat control program was established to ensure rats did not become established in Alberta.
  • Norway rats are well known to be extremely destructive creatures.
  • The economic losses they cause to stored and in-field crops, the destruction of property, and their effects on human health have been widely documented for decades.
  • Losses caused by rats can be divided into three categories:
      • Losses to food stuffs - consumption and contamination.
      • Damage caused by gnawing and tunnelling.
      • Disease transmission. Public health concerns of rat spread diseases such as C-difficile, e-coli, Lepstospirosis, Rat Bite Fever, and Superbug bacteria are a few pathogens spread by rats.


      Feed consumed by rats is not Alberta's biggest concern.
 
 
 
 
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For more information about the content of this document, contact Phil Merrill.
This document is maintained by Karen Hladych.
This information published to the web on May 29, 2013.
Last Reviewed/Revised on February 13, 2018.