issues and experts

Future of rat management in cities – SFU expert available

September 24, 2024

Cities offer everything a rat needs to survive and thrive – food, water and places to live. Adaptable and highly reproductive, rats can carry disease like leptospirosis and Hepatitis E and affect peoples’ mental health by causing anxiety and fear.

Last week, SFU professor Kaylee Byers was a participant at the Inaugural National Urban Rat Summit in New York City to speak about her work with the Vancouver Rat Project.

Dr. Byers can speak about lessons learned at the rat summit including the need for an integrated approach to rat management that takes into account the complexity of the problem across a number of connected spaces and habitats, including city parks, sewers, homes and alleys.

AVAILABLE SFU EXPERT

KAYLEE BYERS, assistant professor, health sciences  
kbyers@sfu.ca
Expertise: Rat infestations and management in cities; success levels of rat control programs; including rat birth control; city planning and home improvements to keep rats away; rat surveillance programs; impacts of rats on human health and wellbeing; and lessons from the Vancouver Rat Project. 

CONTACT

JEFF HODSON, SFU Communications & Marketing 
jdhodson@sfu.ca

Simon Fraser University
Communications & Marketing |  SFU Media Experts Directory
778.782.3210

ABOUT SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

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As Canada’s engaged university, SFU works with communities, organizations and partners to create, share and embrace knowledge that improves life and generates real change. We deliver a world-class education with lifelong value that shapes change-makers, visionaries and problem-solvers. We connect research and innovation to entrepreneurship and industry to deliver sustainable, relevant solutions to today’s problems. With campuses in British Columbia’s three largest cities—Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey—SFU has eight faculties that deliver 364 undergraduate degree programs and 149 graduate degree programs to more than 37,000 students. The university now boasts more than 180,000 alumni residing in 145+ countries.

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