Risk evaluation of spatial distribution of faecal mice contaminants in simulated agricultural and food store

We studied spatial distribution of faeces of a wild strain of house mice after invasion into a new environment. in a simulated small store room,we evaluated the density of faeces and their relative allocation in the following three sectors: shelter,food + water and remaining area. individual positions of a total of 9,809 deposited faeces were recorded. the spatial distribution of faeces was not random but aggregated. the average relative proportion of faeces in the three sectors was: 7.0% at food+water; 15.7% at shelter; and 76.7% in remaining area. although the relative proportion of the total deposited faeces was lowest around food,the risk of food spoilage remains high due to high faeces numbers produced per mouse and day. even a single mouse invasion into a simulated store caused serious floor contamination (97.3 faeces/m2) as the average daily defecation rate was 102.2 ± 5.7 faeces/ individual (range: 48-156). copyright 2015 zoological society of pakistan.