The Bronx‘s Community Board 7 has been crowned as the borough’s “rat king,” according to numbers released by the city Health Department.

Out of 4,027 buildings that were inspected throughout Norwood, University Heights, Jerome Park, Bedford Park, Fordham, and Kingsbridge Heights last year, 564 of them – 14% – had signs of the rodents.

“We’ve known about [the rat problem] now for three years and we’ve been trying to work with the Health Department to solve it,” said Community Board 7 District Manager Fernando Tirado. “They have cut their pest control inspectors so it makes it very difficult when we have an obvious problem to address when the city doesn’t consider this a priority.”

Sixty-three pest control jobs have been terminated under the city’s budget cuts.

And fears of rats running wild have been fueled in recent days by YouTube videos of them scampering through subway cars. [NYDailyNews]