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Demography and ecology of Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, in the sewer system of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain)

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Abstract

Norway rats are an important commensal species of human settlements. They are abundant in urban areas and generate several problems to our societies. Integrated rat management programs, based on detailed knowledge of its biology, are needed to keep rat populations under control. One of the main habitats of rats in cities is the sewer system. Unfortunately, very few studies have been conducted on sewer rats due to the logistic challenges of such projects. Hence, information on the ecology of rats in a key habitat, crucial to management programs, is scarce. The aim of this study is to estimate the abundance of Norway rats in the sewers of the city of Barcelona and determine the main related ecological factors. We sampled 63 sewer sections 90 m long during the study. We obtained several rat activity estimates, we compared them, we calculated a minimum rat density, and with that, we estimated the minimum rat population size in the sewer system of Barcelona. Bait consumption and rat capture estimates showed low correlations. Sewer rats showed the highest activity in areas with high density of housing and in old sections. The presence of natural soil favoured the activity of rats only inside the areas with a high density of housing. The activity of rats showed a high variability among sewer sections. The citizen complaints for rats, which were positively related to the human density and negatively related to the mean disposable household income, were bad predictors of the activity of rats in the sewer system.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, who financed the study; Lokimica and the program Barcelona Activa of Ajuntament de Barcelona, which contributed assistant workers and logistic support; Barcelona Cicle de l’Aigua, who assisted us in the sewers and provided the sewer system’s map; Barcelona Regional, who provided GIS layers; and all the people involved in the study. We also thank Manuel García-Howlett who kindly enhanced the English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pest Surveillance and Control, Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Jordi Pascual, Sandra Franco, Víctor Peracho & Tomás Montalvo

  2. Departamento de Investigación y Desarrollo (I+D), Laboratorios Lokímica, Catarroja-València, Spain

    Rubén Bueno-Marí

  3. CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, CIBERESP, Madrid, Spain

    Tomás Montalvo

Authors
  1. Jordi Pascual
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  2. Sandra Franco
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  3. Rubén Bueno-Marí
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  4. Víctor Peracho
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  5. Tomás Montalvo
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Correspondence to Jordi Pascual.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable international, national and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. We obtained an exceptional authorization from the Fauna and Flora Service of the Catalan Government (Ref.: SF/044) to use the snap traps in the Barcelona sewer system.

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Communicated by C. Imholt.

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Pascual, J., Franco, S., Bueno-Marí, R. et al. Demography and ecology of Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, in the sewer system of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). J Pest Sci 93, 711–722 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-019-01178-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-019-01178-6

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