Securing the Homeland One Rat at a Time
How controlling rat populations can impact global homeland security.
What do the rats have to do with Homeland Security? Well, I guess that would have more to do with your definition of Homeland Security than the rats themselves. If clean water, greater crop yields, and a lesser chance of rodent spread disease sounds like it could contribute to the global homeland security, then focusing on controlling rat populations might not be a bad place to start. Rats can have a negative impact on human populations in three ways: First, the damage they cause while crops are growing; second, the impact they have on crops once harvested and three, they are the vectors of a multitude of debilitating diseases. Wouldn’t it be great if we could control the global invasive rodent population without leaving rotting, poison filled rat carcasses lying around our food supply? Imagine humanely keeping rat populations down to a manageable size without polluting our farmlands and waterways.
In the past we have relied on rodenticides to attempt to manage rat populations. Because these are typically poisons there are a multitude of problems that accompany their use. According to Scientific American magazine, data from US poison-control call centers recorded 10,000 to 14,000 calls concerning rat poison annually between 2004 and 2008. According to the EPA, those numbers likely account for about one quarter of all exposures. (Read more here) In addition to threatening humans, rat poisons have a significant environmental impact. Wildlife and domestic animals have fallen prey to poisoning when dead or dying rats are consumed. (Read more here) When rat populations are treated with a poison it results in a drop in numbers as the rats die. As the population decreases, however, it gives way for other rats to simply “move in” to the recently vacated premise. In most cases population numbers have been know to ‘rebound’ after a rodenticide treatment, back to the original numbers, and sometimes surpassing it. A better approach might be to control the population in order to allow a smaller group of rats to continue to defend their own “Homeland.” (Read more here)
Enter SenesTech; A bioengineering company that has developed a product that can sterilize the female rats through bait delivered agent. Started in 2002, SenesTech has been perfecting the delivery mechanism and is on the precipice of mass production and global distribution. The projections on grain yield impact through humane rodent population control could realize an increase that could feed 380 million people annually. (Read more here) Recently featured in a Stephen Hawkings documentary, SenesTechs biotechnical advances stand to realize a significant, positive impact on our global community. (Video Here. Password: Science01)
It may not be a sophisticate intelligence program or top secret counterterrorism network, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that sometimes, homeland security is a matter of making our planet more tenable. Minimizing the spread of potentially debilitating disease and decreasing the amount of toxic waste we introduce into our environment is a matter of homeland security, as is setting an example for humanely resolving an age old problem.
[1]http://www.spipm.cgiar.org/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=17830&folderId=18484&name=DLFE-156.pdf
[2] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rat-poisons-endanger-10000-children/
[3] http://www.dfg.ca.gov/education/rodenticide/
[4] http://senestech.com/product-pipeline/for-rats
[5] Ibid
[6] http://vimeo.com/79308786 Password: Science01
