New York City has spent years battling its notorious rat problem, but a new study suggests rodents may be adapting to many of the methods used to exterminate them.
Researchers at Rutgers University examined rodent samples collected from New York City, Washington, D.C., New Jersey and the Philadelphia region and found evidence that mice are evolving rapidly, with many carrying genetic mutations that help them survive poisons designed to kill them.
“They show a much higher mutation frequency than we thought before,” said JinJia Yu, a Rutgers postdoctoral fellow…