RATS: a world wide challenge to mankind

Abstract

It is said that when rats outnumber human beings civilisation collapses. The signs of decay from this truly appalling cause may not yet be evident, but it is a long‐attested fact that the world's rat population certainly equals the human, and has done so for a long time. ‘When we talk about rodent control’, said one expert recently, ‘we're talking about human survival.’ No other human pest exerts such pressure on the human race. In terms of the raiding of food stocks, the spread of diseases from typhoid and cholera, bites and infections, the rat presents a unique menace.

Citation

Gunston, D. (1980), "RATS: a world wide challenge to mankind", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 80 No. 5, pp. 10-11. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb058813