THE HOUSE RAT 17 



TRICHINOSIS 



Trichinosis is a disease of animals, particularly of pigs and rats. 

 Man is infected by eating improperly cooked pork containing the 

 cysts of a round worm (Trichinell-a spiralis). Upon reaching the 

 stomach the cysts are dissolved, setting free the tiny worms, which 

 develop and breed in the intestine. The young embryos enter the 

 blood stream and penetrate the muscles. The symptoms in severe 

 cases are sometimes mistaken for typhoid fever. The death rate has 

 ranged from 5 to 15 percent in cases studied. Rats do not transmit 

 the parasites directly to man but are a factor in propagating and 

 perpetuating the disease in pigs. The destruction of rats around all 

 piggeries would lessen the incidence of trichinosis. 



OTHER RAT-BORNE DISEASES 



. Rats no doubt play a more important part than is generally recog- 

 nized in spreading various parasites that affect man, including in- 

 testinal protozoa and the tapeworm. Veterinarians are finding that 

 diseases and fatalities among domestic animals and livestock are more 

 prevalent where rats are plentiful, and close attention is given the 

 rat in connection with many livestock diseases, including white scour 

 in calves, mastitis, ringworm, contagious abortion, tuberculosis, abor- 

 tion in mares, joint ill in foals, and others. No owner of valued 

 livestock or domestic animals should take unnecessary chances of 

 losing them through disease transmitted by rats when keeping the 

 rats out would remove the possibility. 



RAT UTILIZATION 



There is no known use of the common rat that could offset in any 

 measure its destructiveness. Unlike most other animal pests, it has 

 no saving quality. Even the fact that it may act as a scavenger 

 must be discredited because of the filth it leaves behind and because 

 the harmful organisms it spreads may often be more objectionable 

 than the offal it might consume. 



Pelts of the brown rat were at one time used to a limited extent 

 in the manufacture of small toy animals but, so far as known, are not 

 now utilized for any purpose. The house rat, of course, cannot be 

 credited with the services rendered by its domestic brother as a 

 laboratory animal, although in the absence of the albino rat, it could 

 probably be used in the same capacity. 



REPRESSION OF RATS 



Because of the great menace of the house rat to human health and 

 prosperity and because of its utter lack of usefulness, it is amazing 

 that it has been allowed to # exist as it has in the United States. If 

 everyone understood the true status of the rat, how dangerous and 

 how destructive a rodent it is, not even a single rat would be allowed 

 to exist in or near an abode or place of business. Pride, as well as 

 common sense, should force anyone harboring rats on his premises 

 to make sure of their complete extermination. 



In most cases the use of poison baits is the best method for destroy- 

 ing rats, although traps bring good results when skillfully used and 



