ROME, Italy (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — Converting wilderness areas into farmland in East Africa may be increasing the risk of disease epidemics as rodents crawling with plague-carrying fleas are drawn to harvested food.
A study that was recently published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene said cropland in northern Tanzania has expanded by 70 percent over the last few decades, and the number of plague-carrying rodents in these corn growing areas has nearly doubled compared with neighbouring wilderness areas.
Scientists linked an increase in corn fields to a 20-fold rise in the population of African rats in northern Tanzania, which transmit deadly diseases to humans, including Lassa fever and plague.
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“We found that introducing maize production in natural areas appears to create a perfect storm for plague transmission,” said Hillary Young, a University of California professor and lead author of the study.
“Local farmers often … store this harvested corn next to or inside their homes, baiting in the hungry field rats and increasing opportunities for human infection.”
The study said plague caused 675 deaths in Tanzania from 1980 to 2011, which could rise as new wilderness areas become farmland and rat populations increase.
Plague, which is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is less deadly than Ebola or other epidemics, but it is fatal in more than 30 percent of cases if left untreated, the study said.
It said farmers and politicians will have to balance the need for more farmland with concerns over the spread of disease as Africa’s population soar, and food demand increases.
