A Comparative Assessment of Track Plates to Quantify Fine Scale Variations in the Relative Abundance of Norway Rats in Urban Slums.

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 i

SUBMITTER: Hacker KP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4955619 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature