European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

STUDIES ON EFFICACY OF BAIT CARRIERS IN ENHANCING BAIT PREFERENCES AMONG BY THE LESSER BANDICOOT, BANDICOTA BENGALENSIS

D. Sudha Rani*, Ch. V. Narasimha Rao, Y. Suryanarayana and M. Bharatha Lakshmi

ABSTRACT

Rodents cause severe economic yield loss to various field crops. Among all the rodent species infesting field crops the lesser bandiccot, Bandicoota bengalensis is the major potential pest. The most common method of rodent management is poison baiting which often led to genetic resistance, poison aversion, bait shyness, behavioural avoidance, non target poisoning and environmental risks. To overcome the above a laboratory trial was conducted at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Maruteru ,West Godavari , Andhra Pradesh during 2012-13 to evaluate the effective bait carrier as an alternative to be used in poison bait against field rat infesting irrigated paddy. Six sets of rodents were used for each experiment in both no-choice and multiple choice feeding trials with seven different bait carriers namely, bengal gram, dry fish, moong dal, honey, jaggery, potato slices (fried), maize flour along with regular bait (Broken rice and Vegetable oil, 98:2) as control for six consecutive days. The average daily intake (ADI) of each bait by the rodents is recorded and converted to g/100 g body weight. Among all the bait carriers evaluated the fried potato slices (Broken rice- Fried potato slices- Vegetable oil , 96:2:2) has recorded above 100 per cent increase in ADI of food in comparison to normal bait (Broken rice- Vegetable oil, 98:2). The order of bait preference followed the same trend in both no choice and multiple choice trials as Fried potato slices >dry fish >moong dal >bengal gram >maize flour >jaggery >honey.

Keywords: Bait carrier, rodent, poison baiting, feeding trails.