More than 60 Norway rats have been killed following the discovery of the rodents at a landfill in Southern Alberta.

Alberta has billed itself as a rat-free province since the 1950′s.

A Manager with Alberta Agriculture tells 660News it’s important to seek out each and every rat and destroy them.

Vaughn Christensen says they are using the latest technology to eradicate the rodents, setting up infrared cameras to track the mostly-nocturnal rats.

Bylaw officers are also considering dumping bull snakes in the landfill, because the reptiles might enjoy dining on the rats.

As soon as all of the rats, which could number as many as 200, have been caught and killed, crews will move in and turn that part of the dump upside down.

Norway rats are a resilient bunch; they reproduce once a month, can jump up to three feet, can swim up to half a mile and can also chew through a cinder block.

Rats also spread as many as 35 different diseases and are blamed destroying or damaging up to $200-billion worth of food, mostly crops, around the world each year.