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A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF TRACK PLATES TO QUANTIFY FINE SCALE VARIATIONS IN THE RELATIVE ABUNDANCE OF NORWAY RATS IN URBAN SLUMS
Track plates
Urban slum
Zoontotic diseases
Indirect abundance
Zero-inflated
Author
Affilliation
Yale School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. New Haven, USA.
University of Liverpool. Institute of Integrative Biology. Liverpool, UK.
University of Liverpool. Institute of Integrative Biology. Liverpool, UK.
Yale School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. New Haven, USA / University of Liverpool. Institute of Integrative Biology. Liverpool, UK.
Fundação Gonçalo Moniz. Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Universidade Federal da Bahia. Instituto de Saúde Coletiva. Salvador, BA, Brasil.
Yale School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. New Haven, USA.
Yale School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. New Haven, USA / Fundação Gonçalo Moniz. Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil.
Yale School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. New Haven, USA / University of Liverpool. Institute of Integrative Biology. Liverpool, UK / Fundação Gonçalo Moniz. Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Universidade Federal da Bahia. Instituto de Saúde Coletiva. Salvador, BA, Brasil.
University of Liverpool. Institute of Integrative Biology. Liverpool, UK.
University of Liverpool. Institute of Integrative Biology. Liverpool, UK.
Yale School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. New Haven, USA / University of Liverpool. Institute of Integrative Biology. Liverpool, UK.
Fundação Gonçalo Moniz. Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Universidade Federal da Bahia. Instituto de Saúde Coletiva. Salvador, BA, Brasil.
Yale School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. New Haven, USA.
Yale School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. New Haven, USA / Fundação Gonçalo Moniz. Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil.
Yale School of Public Health. Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. New Haven, USA / University of Liverpool. Institute of Integrative Biology. Liverpool, UK / Fundação Gonçalo Moniz. Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Universidade Federal da Bahia. Instituto de Saúde Coletiva. Salvador, BA, Brasil.
Abstract
Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) living in urban environments are a critical public health and economic problem, particularly in urban slums where residents are at a higher risk for rat borne diseases, yet convenient methods to quantitatively assess population sizes are lacking. We evaluated track plates as a method to determine rat distribution and relative abundance in a complex urban slum environment by correlating the presence and intensity of rat-specific marks on track plates with findings from rat infestation surveys and trapping of rats to population exhaustion. To integrate the zero-inflated track plate data we developed a two-component mixture model with one binary and one censored continuous component. Track plate mark-intensity was highly correlated with signs of rodent infestation (all coefficients between 0.61 and 0.79 and all p-values < 0.05). Moreover, the mean level of pre-trapping rat-mark intensity on plates was significantly associated with the number of rats captured subsequently (Odds ratio1.38; 95% CI 1.19-1.61) and declined significantly following trapping (Odds ratio 0.86; 95% CI 0.78-0.95). Track plates provided robust proxy measurements of rat abundance and distribution and detected rat presence even when populations appeared 'trapped out'. Tracking plates are relatively easy and inexpensive methods that can be used to intensively sample settings such as urban slums, where traditional trapping or mark-recapture studies are impossible to implement, and therefore the results can inform and assess the impact of targeted urban rodent control campaigns.
Keywords
Rattus norvegicusTrack plates
Urban slum
Zoontotic diseases
Indirect abundance
Zero-inflated
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