Mitigating rodent impacts on health and well-being in rural Madagascar

Rodents significantly impact communities in low-income countries. Each year they destroy crops that could feed hundreds of millions of people and transmit diseases which kill thousands of people. Controlling rodent populations effectively is challenging because new rodents move in from neighbouring populations, this can exacerbate disease risk in some circumstances. Innovative community-led management techniques that exploit knowledge of rodent ecology have been developed to reduce crop losses. However, the impact of these on disease risk has not been considered. Working in Madagascar, I will work with communities to develop and test control strategies that aim to reduce both agricultural losses and disease risk. I will use field experiments and computer models to determine where and when to control rodents. I will examine the cost-efficiency and feasibility of different management strategies for communities. By working with national and international organisations I will make sure that this research informs policy across Africa.