| The NPTA National Rodent Survey 2008/9
A Landmark National Rodent Survey
Barrie Sheard
This year represents a landmark in our National Rodent Survey. The 2008/9 report is the tenth since we established our annual nationwide assessment of the UK-wide rodent challenge in the late 1990s.
We did this in response to members’ concerns over the inability of an increasingly reactive and less well-structured approach to rodent control to effectively tackle rat and mouse problems; concerns that are, sadly, every bit as pressing today as they were then.
Over the years the support we’ve received from environmental health and pest control officers in local authorities the length and breadth of the country in responding to our annual request for information has grown tremendously.
Our very first survey included data from a third of all UK local authorities. Since 2004 we have never had less than a 60% response rate. And for the past two years more than three quarters of unitary authorities, district, borough and city councils have provided us with their figures and feedback.
That fact that at 76%, this year’s response rate was within a whisker of the 80% record we scored in our 2007/8 survey despite the huge disruptions of the most recent local government reorganisation in many parts of the country speaks volumes for the dedication of those involved.
We are hugely grateful to all our local authority survey partners – and to the increasing number of members in private practice responding to our requests for wider information – for their continuing commitment. Without it we simply could not provide such a definitive annual picture of our national rodent challenge. Download Barrie's full report below.
| Information on the NPTA National Rodent Survey 2008/9 |
| |
|
|
