Rodent biology and ecologically based rodent management (EBRM)—25 years of progress through promoting multidisciplinary research

Abstract

Rodent biology and ecologically based rodent management (EBRM)-25 years of progress through promoting multidisciplinary research"During rodent outbreak years in eastern Africa, locally, more than 80% of the potential harvest may be lost, but even in non-outbreak periods, rodents cause chronic damage to crops…. The pest rodent story in Africa involves several species embedded in a broad and variable landscape with highly variable densities." (Leirs et al. 2010).Rodents make up approximately 42% of mammalian species and their domestication has provided many scholarly and health benefits (Singleton & Krebs 2007). However, rodents are better known as frightful pests, a scourge of human populations. Their presence in urban, rural, and natural environments causes major negative economic, social, health, and biodiversity impacts. Interestingly, less than 10% of rodent species are involved in these negative impacts at a global scale ) and less than 5% of rodent species in Africa (Makundi et al. 1999). Nevertheless, the impacts are of major concern to both smallholder farmers in developing countries (Leirs 2002;Massawe et al. 2011;Singleton et al. 2021) and broadscale farmers in developed countries (Brown 2007), and the effects on health and food security are concerning (Meerburg et al. 2009a,b).The quote above together with the broad framework of impacts of rodents provide an apposite framework for this special issue of papers from the 7th International Conference on Rodent Biology and Management (ICRBM) that was held in July 2022 in Arusha, Tanzania. The conference was hosted by the