ArticleEmerging microbes & infections2019
Evaluation of rodent control to fight Lassa fever based on field data and mathematical modelling.
Article in Emerging microbes & infections, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing the Environmental Drivers of Lassa Fever in West Africa: A Systematic Review.Viruses · 2025Pooled it
- A fractional-order analysis of recurrent Lassa fever transmission in Nigeria.Virus research · 2026Article
- The socio-economic shield limits Lassa virus spillover in urban West Africa.Epidemiology and infection · 2026Article
- Evaluating vectors for the design of a spillover-disrupting Lassa virus transmissible vaccine.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Serosurveillance Identifies an Endemic Hotspot of Lassa Fever in Faranah, Upper Guinea.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Partitioning Social and Spatial Drivers of Infection Risk.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Molecular cloning and host range analysis of three cytomegaloviruses fromJournal of virology · 2025Article
- Rodent control strategies and Lassa virus: some unexpected effects in Guinea, West Africa.Emerging microbes & infections · 2024Article
- Lassa virus persistence with high viral titers following experimental infection in its natural reservoir host, Mastomys natalensis.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Modelling Lassa virus dynamics in West AfricanJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- Twenty-nine years of continuous monthly capture-mark-recapture data of multimammate mice (Mastomys natalensis) in Morogoro, Tanzania.Scientific data · 2023Article
- Predicting the fine-scale spatial distribution of zoonotic reservoirs using computer vision.Ecology letters · 2023Article
- Optimizing the delivery of self-disseminating vaccines in fluctuating wildlife populations.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- Epidemiological connectivity between humans and animals across an urban landscape.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Seroepidemiology of Lassa virus in pregnant women in Southern Nigeria: A prospective hospital-based cohort study.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- Effects of culling vampire bats on the spatial spread and spillover of rabies virus.Science advances · 2023Article
- Seroprevalence of anti-Lassa Virus IgG antibodies in three districts of Sierra Leone: A cross-sectional, population-based study.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- Combating Lassa Fever in West African Sub-Region: Progress, Challenges, and Future Perspectives.Viruses · 2023Review
- Quantifying the effectiveness of betaherpesvirus-vectored transmissible vaccines.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Inoculation route-dependent Lassa virus dissemination and shedding dynamics in the natural reservoir -Emerging microbes & infections · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Natal multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis) is the reservoir host of Lassa virus, an arenavirus that causes Lassa haemorrhagic fever in humans in West Africa. Because no vaccine exists and therapeutic options are limited, preventing infection through rodent control and human behavioural measures is currently considered to be the only option. In order to assess the efficacy of rodent control, we performed a 4-year field experiment in rural Upper Guinea and developed a mathematical model to simulate different control strategies (annual density control, continuous density control, and rodent vaccination). For the field study, rodenticide baits were placed each year in three rural villages, while three other villages were used as controls. Rodents were trapped before and after every treatment and their antibody status and age were determined. Data from the field study were used to parameterize the mathematical model. In the field study, we found a significant negative effect of rodent control on seroprevalence, but this effect was small especially given the effort. Furthermore, the rodent populations recovered rapidly after rodenticide application, leading us to conclude that an annual control strategy is unlikely to significantly reduce Lassa virus spillover to humans. In agreement with this finding, the mathematical model suggests that the use of continuous control or rodent vaccination is the only strategy that could lead to Lassa virus elimination. These field and model results can serve as a guide for determining how long and frequent rodent control should be done in order to eliminate Lassa virus in rural villages.
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