Eastern Australia Plagued by Mice; Infestation Spiralling Out of Control

Mice in the streets, in cabinets, and thousands in barns pooping so much waste that locals have reportedly spent up to six hours cleaning mouse poop from their property.

An out-of-control mouse infestation has become the common scene in Queensland and New South Wales, Australia making daily life miserable for grocers, farmers, and citizens of eastern Australia states.

A farmer describes the scenario as "an absolute plague," much more severe than anything locals have seen in decades, in an interview by the Guardian.

Some farmers have reportedly lost entire grain harvests due to the rampaging mice. While hotels have been forced to close because they can't keep the mice out of rooms. Staff at grocery stores in a small town northwest of Syden reportedly caught 600 mice in a single night.

Additionally, the Guardian reported that at least three people have sought medical help due to rodent bites.

Science Behind the Absolute Mice Plague

Steve Henry, a researcher at Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, tells The Guardian that the recent absolute mice plague is a result of an unusually large grain harvest that drew hungry mice from other areas to farms earlier in the season.

He adds that the mice began to breed earlier due to the abundance of food and shelter available in the system, and will continue to breed from early spring through autumn.

Locals have retaliated against the plague by laying more traps, while a farmer in Queensland was allowed to use a drone to drop poison bait on mice from above.

Despite the continued efforts, Alan Brown, a farmer from Wagga Wagga, New South Wales says that the plague was likely only the beginning considering the fast pace breeding in mice' a single pair of breeding mice can produce a new litter roughly every 20 days, birthing more than 500 offsprings in a single season, according to Reuters.

Brown explains that mature female mice can breed almost every three weeks leading to the build-up of a massive mouse plague.

Dangers of the Mouse Plague

Not only is the absolute mouse plague a nuisance for locals of Eastern Australia states, but it also poses health threats since mice plagues act as vectors of diseases according to a 1998 report on mice by the Queensland Government.

The report stated that common pathogens like Salmonella bacteria can easily be spread by a wide range of animals. Where bacteria are usually transmitted via people through food contaminated with infectious droppings and urine which can cause acute gastroenteritis--the inflammation of the intestinal lining due to the presence of bacteria, viruses, or parasites. And the second most common illness in the US.

Symptoms of gastroenteritis include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever, and chills. Despite most people rapidly recovering, there is no treatment for the infection.

Priscilla Stanley, the public health director of the Western NSW local health district told ABC that she received reports of lymphocytic choriomeningitis--a viral rodent-borne infection disease common in the house mouse.

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