Rodent Control in Food Establishments

IT is a pleasure and an honor for me to be here to participate in the discussion of a problem of major importance to both the American Public Health Association and the Biological Survey, the health workers being interested in safeguarding the health of this nation, and of the world, from ratborne diseases, and the survey in controlling an animal that is a greater menace to the health of mankind and a greater destroyer of property than any other in the world. My subject, "Rodent Control in Food Establishments," means rat control in food establishments, because the rat constitutes the major rodent problem in such places and, with the exception of the house mouse, is the only one with which we need be concerned. The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) is the common rat known throughout this country. Another species of the same genus, the black rat (Rattus rattus), is present in parts of the southern and southeastern states. I am well aware that members of the American Public Health Association are much more familiar than I am with the diseases of human beings that rats transmit and the manner in which each