Rodent Problems in Africa

Abstract

Rodent pest outbreaks or irruptions occurring at national or regional levels have been reported since at least 1905. Wet environments, such as marshes, harbor several rodents capable of damaging crops. Grassland and woodland savannas contain Tatera, Arvicanthis, Praomys, and Thryonomys which are responsible for agricultural losses that are normally chronic but can be periodically acute. Seasonal increases in rodent-borne diseases would be expected at or following rodent population peaks. Plague has been seasonal in most African countries and a relationship to rodent population dynamics seems possible. Despite decades of rodent research on biology, taxonomy, ecology, and disease, research on agricultural rodent pest problems in Africa has lagged. Praomys natalensis, the multimammate rat, is the most economically important of all pest rodent species in Africa. Tropical diseases abound in Africa, and rodents are responsible for several which affect man or livestock including plague, leptospirosis, murine typhus, and Lassa fever.