Towards sustainable management of rodents in organic animal husbandry

From 26 to 28 May 2004 an international seminar was held in Wageningen, the Netherlands. about current knowledge and advice on rodent management on organic pig and poultry farms in Western Europe. This paper summarizes the discussions. Rodent management is necessary to protect the food production chain from health hazards to livestock and humans. Some organic farmers prefer biological rodent control, but since rodents can also transmit diseases this bears certain risks for the production of healthy live-stock and safe food. Effective rodent management requires a thorough understanding of the biology of the pest species concerned. These can be divided into two groups: Field rodents. such as and commensal rodents like house mice and rats. The objective of managing Field rodents is to minimize livestock exposure to these vectors. and to regulate their populations in case their density is expect.