Ugh! Big cargo of rotten Cambodian rats hits Thailand markets

Public health inspectors acting on a tip off intercepted a cargo of Cambodian rats headed for the markets of Thailand, reports Thaivisa News.

The cargo of rodents amounted to 200 kilograms of the chopped up variety and a total of 2,500 topped and tailed creatures that authorities said represented a serious risk to public health. They were on their way to the Rong Klua market in the area.

The rats were contained in a truck hidden behind empty bags of fertiliser. They were town rats and rats from sewers mixed up with field rats.

Experts on rats said that the field variety can be safely consumed if well done but it is not safe to eat town or sewer rats that consume dirty food and pass on a variety of diseases to humans including typhus.

A checkpoint had been set up near Aranyaprathet after Thai authorities received information that Cambodians in the Poi Pet market area were catching town rats and sewer rats and preparing them.

Health authorities were unable to separate the good field rats from the diseased ones so the entire lorry load had to be destroyed in a mobile incinerator used for such eventualities.

As far as the Cambodian “rats” who brought in the diseased rodents, unfortunately they managed to evade punishment and disappear back over the border.

Thai Visa

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