The recent spike in rat population is partly being attribute to the cut in the trash pick up program, dropping from one a week to around once a month, Britain's The Sun reported Monday.

Brown rats are known to spread numerous diseases, including Weil's, salmonella, tuberculosis, E.Coli and foot-and-mouth.

Since 2000 there has been a 39 percent increase in the number of rats in Britain. Jed Kenrick, who heads the environmental services group Rentokil UK, suggested the country is facing a rat epidemic of "plague-like proportions."

"The rodent population has grown significantly in recent times," he said, "and a contributing factor has been the introduction of fortnightly rubbish collections."