Jackson W B
Bull World Health Organ. 1972;47(3):281-6.
Domestic rodents, particularly those living in urban populations, represent a serious public health problem, and effective control measures are required to deal with this threat to human health. Because of the characteristic interactions between individual animals, certain behaviour patterns occur in rodent populations that are of particular concern to control biologists. The genus Rattus is an extremely diverse group whose ecological requirements are variable and flexible, while the genus Mus, on account of its small size, limited range, and modest requirements in terms of food and water, is also very difficult to control. For any control operation a knowledge of the growth dynamics of domestic rodent populations is needed; after a period of logarithmic growth, population increases cease when the habitat is fully exploited. Consequently, control operations that merely remove some animals lead only to renewed population growth. Trapping, poisoning, and predation are traditional control measures of this kind. Environmental modification is a more certain, but more difficult, approach. The use of chemosterilants offers some hope of radical control in the future, but at present, although some field trials have been made, these substances are not available for general use, one reason being their lack of specificity. Another problem connected with the use of chemosterilants is that, on account of the sexual behaviour and physiology of domestic rodents, it would be necessary to reach nearly 100% of the population to obtain effective control.
家栖啮齿动物，尤其是生活在城市中的那些，构成了严重的公共卫生问题，因此需要采取有效的控制措施来应对这种对人类健康的威胁。由于个体动物之间存在特定的相互作用，啮齿动物种群中会出现某些行为模式，这是控制生物学家特别关注的问题。褐家鼠属是一个极其多样化的群体，其生态需求多变且灵活，而小家鼠属由于体型小、分布范围有限以及对食物和水的需求适度，也很难控制。对于任何控制行动来说，都需要了解家栖啮齿动物种群的增长动态；在经历一段对数增长期后，当栖息地被充分利用时，种群增长就会停止。因此，仅仅捕杀一些动物的控制行动只会导致种群再次增长。诱捕、投毒和捕食都是这类传统的控制措施。改变环境是一种更可靠但更困难的方法。使用化学绝育剂为未来的彻底控制带来了一些希望，但目前，尽管已经进行了一些田间试验，但这些物质尚未普遍可用，一个原因是它们缺乏特异性。与使用化学绝育剂相关的另一个问题是，由于家栖啮齿动物的性行为和生理特性，要达到近100%的种群覆盖率才能实现有效控制。
