Rats and sweet potatoes: Hong Kong’s method of measuring rodent infestation has shortcomings, senior official says
- Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Warner Cheuk says authorities are working with university to better assess rodent infestation
- Remarks came a day after government announced citywide campaign to tackle hygiene issues
Hong Kong’s method of measuring rodent infestation has shortcomings, a senior official has said, adding that the administration has been working with a university to develop a better way of gauging the animal’s population.
Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Warner Cheuk Wing-hing made the remarks a day after the government announced it would launch a citywide campaign on Sunday to tackle hygiene issues.
Cheuk on Saturday said authorities would deliver results after three months, adding the current method of measuring the rodent infestation rate, which involved using uncooked sweet potatoes as bait, had “insufficiencies”.
“The rate will be low naturally when the rats don’t even come to bite the sweet potato,” he said.
The rate is calculated by dividing the number of pieces of bait consumed by the animal with the amount of bait collected from a survey location. Authorities publish district-wide and citywide figures regularly.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, which conducted the study, said pieces of uncooked sweet potatoes were used in the survey as the vegetable was “generally attractive” to rodents and the animals would leave clear gnawing marks on it.
The department carries out the study every six months in rodent-infested areas or places likely to be plagued with the problem. Currently, a total of 50 locations in 19 districts are surveyed.