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Volume 24, Number 2—February 2018
Dispatch

Effects of Culling on Leptospira interrogans Carriage by Rats

Michael J. LeeComments to Author , Kaylee A. Byers, Christina M. Donovan, Julie J. Bidulka, Craig Stephen, David M. Patrick, and Chelsea G. Himsworth
Author affiliations: The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (M.J. Lee, K.A. Byers, C.M. Donovan, D.M. Patrick, C.G. Himsworth); Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada (M.J. Lee, K.A. Byers, C. Stephen, C.G. Himsworth); British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Abbotsford (J.J. Bidulka, C.G. Himsworth); University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (C. Stephen); British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver (D.M. Patrick)

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Figure 1

Two example sites side-by-side in a study of the effects of culling on Leptospira interrogans carriage by rats, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 2016–January 2017. Each site comprised 3 city blocks connected by continuous alleys; individual sites that were trapped at the same time had parallel alleys separated by major roads and multiple buildings that, based on previous research (9,10), rats were assumed to be unlikely to move between. Five and 7 sites were randomly selected as interve

Figure 1. Two example sites side-by-side in a study of the effects of culling on Leptospira interrogans carriage by rats, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 2016–January 2017. Each site comprised 3 city blocks connected by continuous alleys; individual sites that were trapped at the same time had parallel alleys separated by major roads and multiple buildings that, based on previous research (9,10), rats were assumed to be unlikely to move between. Five and 7 sites were randomly selected as intervention and control sites, respectively. In intervention sites, kill-trapping was conducted in the center of the 3 blocks; blocks flanking the intervention block were designated nonkill flanking blocks (nonkill flanking blocks were trapped to detect any indirect effects of kill-trapping, such as immigration from/emigration to the intervention block). Image downloaded from Google Earth Professional (https://www.google.com/earth/download/gep/agree.html).

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Page updated: January 17, 2018
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