Will we be ready? The coronavirus can "turn" mice into cannibals and smart

Mice across America have been starving from coronavirus blockage and many have turned to cannibals to survive, an action that could lead to a smarter, more aggressive breed of mine in the future.

According to many experts, rats that usually feed on waste from restaurants have remained hungry as they have been locked up or restricted to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Michael H. Parsons, a researcher in biological sciences research at Fordham University who is planning to launch a study on mice and COVID-19, told Insider that due to lack of food, rat colonies are moving into new environments.

"Mice have lost access to food in restaurants and now they are looking elsewhere," Parsons said.

"But rat migrations are the result of a lack of food, they're likely to turn into cannibalism to survive," Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodentologist, told NBC News.

"In the short term, rats will reduce their population and limit breeding, which is a good scenario, but it could lead to a new, stronger breed of rats as a long-term outcome," he said. it.

"It's a great scenario if the mice kill each other, but the problem is that instead of having low-ranking mice looking to enter our settlements, we're going to have the smartest and most resilient ones."

If we are dealing with smarter and more resilient mice for a possible wave of pandemic will we be ready?

He added that mice grow quickly, within 23 days more elastic mice can be born looking for food in any way they can. Parsons said that while there are no reported cases of rats contracted with COVID-19, rodents can spread other diseases including bacterial and parasitic infections and Hantavirus to humans and animals.

He said the worst-case scenario would involve mice becoming infected with diseases that carry them to humans. Parsons called on people to increase rodent control in their homes and businesses to keep them away.