Kurdistan Region launches rodent elimination campaign amid global hantavirus concern

ERBIL — The Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Agriculture announced Wednesday a series of precautionary measures against hantavirus, including a broad campaign to eliminate rodents across public and private facilities.

Rabee Mohammed, director general of livestock and veterinary affairs, said the ministry’s scientific committee had held its first meeting on the issue and issued decisions “to protect public health.” Measures include launching a rodent elimination campaign across all governmental and non-governmental institutions, mandatory use of rodent-killing substances in feed factories, poultry projects, slaughterhouses, dairy plants, meat factories and butcher shops, and a ban on domestic hamsters entering through border crossings. Owners of cat and dog food warehouses were also warned to take measures against rodents on their premises.

Mohammed said hantavirus is transmitted through rats and mice, with symptoms including fever, severe fatigue, headache, muscle pain, abdominal pain, diarrhea and, in severe cases, coughing and shortness of breath. He said the mortality rate ranges between 20% and 50% and that no vaccine currently exists.

The measures follow a global alert linked to an outbreak aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius in the Atlantic, which resulted in confirmed and suspected infections and deaths linked to the Andes strain of the virus. Iraq’s Health Ministry said earlier this week it had recorded no hantavirus cases in the country and that the WHO considers the current global risk level low.