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Australia meets a historic mouse plague – banned poison should help

They hide in barns and are frightened by hundreds of farms: Australia is currently experiencing a major mouse plague. The previously forbidden poison should now help.

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They destroy crops, bite people and spread disease – Australian government New South Wales Have to fight the worst mouse plague in about 40 years.

State Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall told the 2GB radio station on Thursday that the government was now providing about 32 million euros in financial assistance to its farmers and producers.

It is intended to compensate for losses resulting from damage. In addition, small businesses and homes should get a discount to buy traps and poisons. Farmers need to get free of chemical poison bait “to fight this pain”.

Worst plague since the 80s

Marshall said, “We haven’t really seen a plague of this size since the early 1980s. Everyone believed that cold winter conditions would stop the number of rats.

He announced that he wanted to get approval for a poison that had previously been banned. The so-called promethazine is the “strongest mouse poison” you can get in the world. The rodent plague has been raging in the state for months.

From early January to late April, 23 cases of leptospirosis were reported to the state Department of Health. It is a rare disease that can lead to kidney failure and meningitis – often transmitted by rats. By 2020, there will be 11 cases, according to the Australian news agency Aam Aadmi.