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In addition to the investigations of recorded complaints, 2,142
other surveys were carried out under the Prevention of Damage
by Pests Act, 1949, giving a grand total of 4,940.
During investigations, infestation was found to exist on 53
occasions in local authority's premises, 1,940 in dwelling houses
and 324 in miscellaneous properties and places of business. Of
these, one major infestation was disclosed in a pig farm. In all,
some 2,513 treatments were effected by the local authority and
15 by occupiers or other services.
Notwithstanding the fact that large industrial firms are
inclined to make contracts with servicing companies, periodical
treatments were carried out at 6 industrial premises, 2 wharves
and storage places, 6 miscellaneous properties and at one hospital
in the Borough.
Following the policy of tracing the source of each infestation,
18 defective drainage systems were discovered. In these instances
Notices were served under the Public Health Act, 1936, and the
defects remedied.
Calls were made as and when necessary on the services of
the Borough Engineer and Planning Officer's staff to enter sewers
during colour-tests or in the tracing of disused drains and also to
the lifting of paving to locate sources of infestation; these services
were readily available.
Occupiers of business premises and also householders readily
report any known or suspected infestation, and the value of routine
investigation made in these properties is emphasised by the fact
that it is rare to find occupiers tolerating infestation after being
made aware of the service available under the Rodent Control
scheme.
Prevention of Damage by Pests Act, 1949.—Rats and mice are
notorious not only for the wholesale destruction and fouling of
foodstuffs and for the structural damage they cause to buildings,
but also for their part in the spread of disease. Leptospirosis
(Weil's disease) is primarily a disease of rats and is one which can
be fatal to man. The disease is transmitted by means of food,
dust, mud, slime and water which has been contaminated by urine
or faeces from infected rats. Efficient rodent control is the first
and most important defence against this type of disease.
The Prevention of Damage by Pests Act, 1949, has placed the
onus for the destruction of these pests on Local Authorities and
makes obligatory the notification to these authorities by occupiers
of any rodent infestation. It has not been found necessary during
the year to take legal action to enforce the provisions of the Act.
The following report was submitted to the Ministry of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, for the year ended 31st December, 1965:—