Lessons from a Rodent Surveillance Training: A Standardized Way to Evaluate Rodent Proliferation towards a Sustainable Intervention

Rodents have been reported to be associated with the transmission of major public health diseases as well as agricultural and economic losses. The lack of site-specific and national standardized rodent surveillance in several disadvantaged communities has rendered interventions targeted towards rodent control as often ineffective. Here, by using the example from a study in The Bahamas, we present a unique experience in which through multidisciplinary and community engagement, we simultaneously developed a standardized national surveillance protocol, and performed two parallel but integrated activities: 1) eight days of theoretical and practical training of selected participants with an additional one-day experts meeting; and 2) a three-month post-training pilot rodent surveillance in the community of Over-the-Hill, Nassau, The Bahamas. For practical training and survey purposes that accounted for cultural and environmental conditions in The Bahamas’, we modified the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) exterior and interior rodent evaluation form and other instruments that have been previously validated for evaluating rodent infestation (tracking plates and snap trapping) to train and obtain a standardized site-specific rodent surveillance protocol for The Bahamas. Our engagement with local communities and international experts showed that ownership problems, unapproved refuse storage, exposed garbage, sources of animal food, poor bulk wastes management and structural deficiencies considerably contributed towards the proliferation of rodents in The Bahamas. Interestingly, results from our pilot survey using a generalized linear model with a logistic link and binomially distributed error structure confirmed that these variables are significantly correlated with the rodent activities reported across the study area. The results of our experience should encourage a standardized protocol for monitoring rodent activities in many localities, while also aiding the holistic understanding of rodent proliferation. Through the involvement of a multidisciplinary team of professionals and community members, we show that sustainable rodent control interventions can be developed that are acceptable by local communities and public authorities.