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Their spread has been via the paths of commerce and in the wake
of warring armies.
Organised rodent control can be traced back to the times of
Queen Elizabeth I when bounties were paid for the heads of
destroyed rats and mice. In more recent years, since the discovery
of an association between these rodents and the spread of plague
and other infectious disease, control has become progressively
more organised. The necessity to conserve food in both world
wars and the need to avoid the dissemination of disease by rats
displaced from sewers as a result of bomb damage added impetus
to these efforts.
Leptospirosis
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
be 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.
Prevention of Damage by Pests Acts, 1949
The Prevention of Damage by Pests Act, 1949, requires the
Local Authority to take the necessary steps to ensure that, so
far as is practicable, their district is kept free from rats and mice,
by:—
(i) carrying out inspections;
(ii) destroying rats and mice on their own property; and
(iii) enforcing the duties of owners and occupiers, as set out
in the Act.
It has not been found necessary during the year to take legal
action to enforce the provisions of the Act.
A Work Study Scheme introduced in June, 1968, was continued
during the current year. Provided all complaints and jobs
were satisfactorily dealt with it enabled bonuses up to 20% of
their wages to be paid to three full-time and one part-time
operators and one full-time investigator; this compares with the
previous establishment of nine operators and one investigator. In
addition to the total of 3,714 recorded complaints (1,822 of rats
and 1,892 of mice) giving a monthly average of 309, other