Micepocalypse: Australia orders banned poison from India to counter infestation of ‘plague proportions’

HIGHLIGHTS

• Bromadiolone, a strong rodenticide, is banned in Australia

• Farmers looking at crisis if number of mice not reduced by spring: NSW Agriculture Minister

• Hospitals, hotels in Australia's eastern states reported an increase in mouse-related disease in March

Australia has ordered a banned poison from India to counter an infestation of mice that has set alarm bells ringing. Government officials have described the scale of this threat to the country's eastern states as "absolutely unprecedented".

The government in New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous state, has now decided to import 5,000 litres of Bromadiolone from India. A strong rodenticide, Bromadiolone, is banned in Australia. The country's federal regulator is yet to approve its emergency use to counter this infestation.

New South Wales Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall said this month that farmers in the state's agricultural plains are looking at an "absolute economic and social crisis" if the number of mice, which are in "plague proportions", is not reduced by spring.

Mice in floors, ceilings

Farmers in rural and regional parts of New South Wales say not just their crops, but also their homes are being threatened by the infestation.

Each night, say locals, they can hear thousands of rodents in the floors and ceilings of their homes and sheds. With their crops at risk, some farmers are poisoning the mice while others are drowning the rodents in buckets.

Authorities have even allowed makers to double the levels of zinc phosphide in mouse baits being sold in Australia.

In March of this year, hospitals and hotels in Australia's eastern states reported an increase in mouse-related disease. Videos of hundreds of mice falling down from roof tops, termed as 'mice rain', are also doing rounds on social media.

Apart from causing diseases such as typhus fever, rodents can also cause widespread devastation to households and commercial farms by destroying food grains.

The New South Wales government has extended a support package of $50 million to farmers and other residents to deal with this crisis.

What led to the infestation?

Following the worst drought in five decades, Australia witnessed heavy rains in recent years.

While this resulted in the country producing its largest ever grain crop, it also ended up providing a food bonanza for mice.

Experts have pointed out that the short breeding cycle of mice coupled with vast amounts of grain crop in Australia's eastern states is likely to have resulted in the infestation.