Control of Rodents and Prevention of their Diseases

Rodents and their species often live in the desert environment and are the reservoir of a large number of important diseases such as leishmaniasis, plague, tularemia, salmonellosis, giardiasis, campylobacter infection, leptospirosis, and scabies. They can easily transmit these diseases to humans and cause illness. Some diseases may appear as epidemics and pose a health hazard to human societies. In addition to health hazards, rodents can cause economic damage to food sources and urban facilities. Therefore, it is necessary to control rodents under any circumstances. In this retrospective analytical study, the state of scientific control against rodents during the 8 years of the imposed war of 1980-1988 was discussed. Scientific methods of improving the environment, physical and chemical combat, and the use of standard rodenticides were employed to control these rodents. Rodent control requires consideration of public health, environmental improvement, and principled and scientific control using updated knowledge against these creatures. This is essential to protect people from diseases transmitted by rodents. These measures were implemented as much as possible according to the facilities and conditions available at that time to reduce diseases transmitted by rodents.