The board that oversees Idaho’s largest public health district on Friday approved a quarter million dollar fund to fight invasive rats.
The Central District Health board approved $250,000 in unspent reserve funds toward a “rodent abatement and prevention project.”
The health district is still planning how to spend those funds, but some of it could go toward free rat traps, finding a way to track rat sightings, and bringing cities together that are affected by the infestation, Central District Health Director Kristin Ryan said in an interview.
Part of why the health district is getting involved, she said, is because rats can pose a public health risk by transmitting diseases. Ryan says she isn’t seeing data to show higher infection rates from rat-spread diseases in the area, but she said officials are trying to be proactive…