Chinese launch rat campaign

Press, 13 January 1987, Page 30

Chinese launch rat campaign

NZPA-AP Peking A big campaign to wipe out China’s estimated three billion rats is being launched across the country, with Peking leading the' effort, an official press report said. The drive was the first to win Government financial support, and the State

had set up a fund of three million yuan ($1.6 million) to combat the rodents, the English-lan-guage "China Daily” reported.

Every family in Peking was required to pay half a yuan (about 25 cents) for rat poison, and municipal government had allocated $735,398 for file campaign, it said. “We will try to make Peking a city free of the rat pest,” said Mr Huang Zhengou, an official at the rat campaign headquarters. The city was distributing poison and training more than 11,000 exterminators who were responsible for placing the poison and calculating the rat population density before and after the drive, the newspaper said. Every home and workplace, including underground air raid shelters and the more than 1800 km sewer system, would be included in the drive, it said. Foreign businesses and embassies would also be required to use the rat poison. China has had big problems with rats destroying grain. More than 15 million tonnes of grain, as much as China imported annually, was eaten or ruined by rats each year, the newspaper said. Rats infested 36.5 million hectares of farmlang, it said.