Swanepoel Lourens H, Swanepoel Corrie M, Brown Peter R, Eiseb Seth J, Goodman Steven M, Keith Mark, Kirsten Frikkie, Leirs Herwig, Mahlaba Themb'alilahlwa A M, Makundi Rhodes H, Malebane Phanuel, von Maltitz Emil F, Massawe Apia W, Monadjem Ara, Mulungu Loth S, Singleton Grant R, Taylor Peter J, Soarimalala Voahangy, Belmain Steven R
Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa.
ARC-Institute for Soil, Climate and Water, Pretoria, South Africa.
PLoS One. 2017 Mar 30;12(3):e0174554. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174554. eCollection 2017.
Rodent pests are especially problematic in terms of agriculture and public health since they can inflict considerable economic damage associated with their abundance, diversity, generalist feeding habits and high reproductive rates. To quantify rodent pest impacts and identify trends in rodent pest research impacting on small-holder agriculture in the Afro-Malagasy region we did a systematic review of research outputs from 1910 to 2015, by developing an a priori defined set of criteria to allow for replication of the review process. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We reviewed 162 publications, and while rodent pest research was spatially distributed across Africa (32 countries, including Madagascar), there was a disparity in number of studies per country with research biased towards four countries (Tanzania [25%], Nigeria [9%], Ethiopia [9%], Kenya [8%]) accounting for 51% of all rodent pest research in the Afro-Malagasy region. There was a disparity in the research themes addressed by Tanzanian publications compared to publications from the rest of the Afro-Malagasy region where research in Tanzania had a much more applied focus (50%) compared to a more basic research approach (92%) in the rest of the Afro-Malagasy region. We found that pest rodents have a significant negative effect on the Afro-Malagasy small-holder farming communities. Crop losses varied between cropping stages, storage and crops and the highest losses occurred during early cropping stages (46% median loss during seedling stage) and the mature stage (15% median loss). There was a scarcity of studies investigating the effectiveness of various management actions on rodent pest damage and population abundance. Our analysis highlights that there are inadequate empirical studies focused on developing sustainable control methods for rodent pests and rodent pests in the Africa-Malagasy context is generally ignored as a research topic.
啮齿类害虫在农业和公共卫生方面尤其成问题，因为它们数量众多、种类多样、食性广泛且繁殖率高，会造成相当大的经济损失。为了量化啮齿类害虫的影响，并确定影响非洲 - 马达加斯加地区小农户农业的啮齿类害虫研究趋势，我们通过制定一套预先定义的标准，对1910年至2015年的研究成果进行了系统综述，以便能够重复该综述过程。我们遵循了系统综述和Meta分析的首选报告项目指南。我们审查了162篇出版物，虽然啮齿类害虫研究在非洲各地（32个国家，包括马达加斯加）都有空间分布，但各国的研究数量存在差异，研究偏向四个国家（坦桑尼亚[25%]、尼日利亚[9%]、埃塞俄比亚[9%]、肯尼亚[8%]），这四个国家占非洲 - 马达加斯加地区所有啮齿类害虫研究的51%。与非洲 - 马达加斯加地区其他地方的出版物相比，坦桑尼亚出版物所涉及的研究主题存在差异，坦桑尼亚的研究更侧重于应用（50%），而非洲 - 马达加斯加地区其他地方则更侧重于基础研究方法（92%）。我们发现，害虫啮齿动物对非洲 - 马达加斯加的小农户农业社区有重大负面影响。作物损失在作物生长阶段、储存和作物之间各不相同，最高损失发生在作物生长早期（苗期中位数损失46%）和成熟期（中位数损失15%）。研究各种管理措施对啮齿类害虫损害和种群数量有效性影响的研究很少。我们的分析强调，在非洲 - 马达加斯加背景下，针对开发啮齿类害虫可持续控制方法的实证研究不足，啮齿类害虫作为一个研究主题通常被忽视。
