Thanks for drawing our attention to this major contemporary public health problem. You have put your finger right at the heart of KLM's problems. Forget about competition from the MEA carriers. KL's real challenge is finding some way of combatting the loss of its passengers to the regular plague epidemics at Schiphol.

FWIW, you seem to be missing the point. The point is not that rodents do not carry pathogenic agents or that farms are free from pathogenic agents. The point is that moderate exposure to pathogens increases rather than decreases health and that obsession with attempting to eradicate all pathogens has had a negative impact on public health.

Clearly, uncontrolled proliferation of rodents can be a public health hazard. It does not follow from this that the occasional, even regular, sighting of rodents signifies that there is a major public health issue in the lounges.