Westmoreland’s Health Department begs business community to help get rid of rats
Chief public health inspector for Westmoreland Steve Morris has declared that the parish is experiencing an infestation of rats.
During his report at the monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation last Thursday, Morris noted that the health department has been getting an increasing number of reports about rats in the town of Savanna-la-Mar.
“We had planned to have a rodent control programme some time ago but because of the COVID outbreak, we had to put it on hold. But we are getting a lot of complaints of sighting of rats in the town, and we need to take some action,” Morris told the meeting.
He said that even though the health department has the manpower to tackle the problem, the lack of funds to follow through with a programme is the department’s main hindrance.
According to Morris, the rat infestation could be solved with the aid of commercial entities in the parish.
“The health department at this time cannot fund a rodent control programme, however, we do have the expertise. We have workers who we can use in a [rodent control] programme. A programme like that is going to cost more than $1 million, so our part would be to organise business people through the municipal corporation who would provide funding and we have the vector control workers who would set the baits and collect the dead rats and so on,” Morris later told the Jamaica Observer.
He underscored that leptospirosis– a bacterial disease that affects humans and animals – was one of the many negative effects of having rats running amok in the town.
Without treatment, leptospirosis can lead to kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, respiratory distress, and even death.
“Leptospirosis is one of the diseases attributed to rats, and we need to be concerned about that. Apart from the leptospirosis, it has been shown that rodents destroy food, so we need to have this controlled,” Morris stated.
In an appeal to the business community, Morris said he is hoping that the township can come together and work at ridding Savanna-la-Mar of these rodents.
