The RodentGate general objective is to maintain or improve the health of pigs and poultry with respect to rodent-borne diseases in a situation where rodenticides are no longer accepted as a major tool for rodent management.
The specific objectives are
1) to document changes in disease risk for pigs and poultry when classical rodent management around farms is prevented
and rodent populations around farms change in abundance or composition and
2) to propose appropriate evidence-based and economically
sustainable strategies for the ecologically-based management of rodents and rodent-borne infections around farms.
Working towards these objectives raises a number of questions:
- What is the current status of rodent-borne pathogens in pigs and poultry, kept under different husbandry styles in different parts of the
EU? - What is the presence and diversity of relevant pig and poultry pathogens in wild rodents in and around pig and poultry farms?
- What is the role of rodents in spreading pathogens between farms, especially after disease outbreaks and subsequent culling or seasonal
emptying of a farm? - How will pig and poultry health be affected if rodent population composition and/or abundance around farms changes following a ban on
rodenticides? - How can the efficiency of rodent management practices in pig and poultry farms be maintained under restricted or no-rodenticide
situations?
The questions above are addressed in five Work Packages (WP).
