NSW Government funding $50 million to combat mouse plague

The NSW (New South Wales) Government has announced $50 million in funding to tackle the ongoing mouse plague, days after two of the state’s most influential rural lobby groups labelled it an ‘economic and public health crisis’.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021

The current plague is being called one of the worst plagues in decades and started being reported around mid-March in Australia’s eastern states. In some places, residents of affected areas reported mice falling out from roof tops causing “mice rain”.

Researchers attributes the plague to an unusually abundant grain harvest, which caused a surplus of mice earlier in the season.

Add to this the fact that mice have a short breeding cycle (a pair of breeding mice can give birth to a new litter every 21 days or so) and are not very choosy about food. Rodents (which includes rats and mice) are the second most successful mammals on the planet after humans.