Super rats posing growing health problem

"I was asleep in a courtyard when I felt the teeth of this giant rat on my leg. Fortunately I woke up. It was very horrible and disgusting," Iskander, a 19-year-old market worker, told IRIN in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. Such cases are becoming increasingly common in urban areas where rodent infestation is becoming a major health issue. But these are no ordinary rats. The pests, descendants of albino rats used in laboratories and wild rats, have spread throughout the country, including Bishkek and the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. The rats have been seen in groups in the streets and yards of the capital in broad daylight. "It was evening. I was going home, when I saw two very fat rats in the gutter. They were as fat as small cats and not at all scared of the hundreds of people passing by," said Nurlan, a student. The pests have proved immune to traditional poison, with some scientists noting that the rats actually thrive on it. Pest control in Kyrgyzstan is too poorly funded and equipped to deal with the problem, observers say. According to scientists, Kyrgyzstan is infested with a new breed of large, resilient rat, descendants of rattus norvegicus - albino rats, which were used in laboratory experiments during Soviet times. Some escaped and bred with the local variety, creating the current, bold, adaptable breed that is proving hard to control. The rats are able to produce offspring after just three months, producing litters of around 10 young. "According to our research, in one year more then 500 people have been bitten by rats in Bishkek alone. We have no figures for rural areas - people there do not go to doctors. The rat situation is now very bad as they carry rabies and other fatal diseases," Anara Alymkulova, a senior lecturer at Kyrgyzstan's Agrarian University, told IRIN. In a worrying development last year, rats in the capital were found to be carriers of rabies, according to Bishkek's epidemiological department. Infected animals can pass rabies, which has a very high mortality rate, to humans by biting them. The rodents were also suspected of carrying other contagious diseases such as plague, Japanese encephalitis and acute intestinal infection. The growing rat population has been attributed in part to lax public health regulations. Rubbish and rotting food are often dumped in the open, particularly around markets. At Osh bazaar, the biggest market in the capital, stall holders and administrators seem unconcerned at the piles of decaying garbage around them. "The main reason for the increase in the number of rats is that many bazaars and rubbish dumps are appearing spontaneously. There is no control, so rats can hide and find food," Alymkulova noted. Health officials are so concerned they have taken the matter to the top. "Currently we are writing a letter to the prime minister to seek help, because we need government support to stop these rats," a public health manger in the capital told IRIN.