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At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1955

Wild-rodent-flea control in rural areas of an enzootic plague region in Hawaii; a preliminary investigation of methods.

Preliminary field tests were carried out to develop methods for controlling fleas on wild rodents in the enzootic plague region of the Island of Hawaii. Among several designs, a metal hood-type DDT bait-box was developed which was simple in design, low in cost, easy to transport to and maintain in the field, protected the insecticide from the elements, and attracted all species of field rats inhabiting a gulch in the Hamakua District. These rats-Rattus rattus (and its subspecies), R. norvegicus, and R. hawaiiensis-readily fed in the DDT bait-boxes and were dusted with 10% DDT powder (in pyrophyllite) on contacting hanging cloth sacks, containing the insecticide, when entering and leaving the bait-boxes. The results indicate that a reduction of the plague-vector fleas, Xenopsylla cheopis and X. vexabilis hawaiiensis, may be obtained both on rats and within their burrows and nests, by the use of DDT bait-boxes. It is suggested that the use of such bait-boxes for wild-rodent-flea control may constitute a valuable method in the prevention of epizootics of plague in the Hamakua District, Hawaii.

Animals↗
PubMed1973

Prospects for biological control of rodent populations.

Pathogens and predatory animals are the main agents used for the biological control of rodents. The pathogens that have been used are of the genus Salmonella; none is rodent-specific and all can cause severe infection in man and domestic animals. Furthermore, rodents frequently develop immunity to, and become carriers of, these organisms, and there is little to commend their use, except in lightly populated areas where control is infrequently applied. The relationships of five predator species with their rodent prey have been examined. The monitor lizard, mongoose, and ferret were for different reasons found to be unsatisfactory, and there is not yet sufficient evidence to warrant further releases of the Japanese weasel. Domestic and feral cats control rodents well in some situations but only after some other agent has removed a large part of the rodent population.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Field evaluation of capsaicin as a rodent aversion agent for poultry feed.

Developing additional techniques for reducing animal feed contamination by rodents and controlling rodent populations is critical to efforts aimed at reducing the occurrence of Salmonella spp infection on poultry farms. Capsaicin, a compound found in chili peppers of the genus Capsicum, produces a burning sensation in the mouth of mammals and is used effectively as an animal deterrent for some pest species. Applied to poultry feed, capsaicin may be effective as an aversive agent to deter rodent feeding and enhance acceptability of rodenticide baits. We tested capsaicin-treated poultry diets (2000 and 3000 Scoville Heat Units, SHU) in no-choice feeding trials at four active New York farms in the winter of 1997-1998. At all farms, consumption of the 2000 SHU diet by rodents (Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus (Berk), and house mice, Mus musculus L) was significantly less than consumption of a control diet. Consumption of the 3000 SHU diet by rodents was significantly less than consumption of a control diet at three of the four farms. Overall, consumption of treated diets was 58-97% and 55-98% less than consumption of the control diet, for the 2000 and 3000 SHU diets, respectively. These reductions appeared to be related closely to the availability of alternative feed sources at these farms. Two-choice feeding trials involving a rodenticide bait (0.05 g kg(-1) brodifacoum) and the 3000 SHU diet demonstrated that Norway rats preferred the rodenticide to the capsaicin-treated poultry feed. Overall, rodenticide bait acceptance was high (95.6%) when offered simultaneously with capsaicin-treated poultry feed. Although poultry managers must utilize several techniques to manage rodent pests, the use of capsaicin-treated diets to reduce feed losses and increase rodenticide bait acceptance appears promising. Use of capsaicin-treated feed on poultry farms may substantially reduce feed contamination by rodents and ultimately the incidence of Salmonella infection in poultry.

Animal Feed↗
PubMed1981

Role of elongation factor 1 in the translational control of rodent brain protein synthesis.

The translational control of protein synthesis during early postnatal neural development and aging was examined in the mouse and the rat. The activity of brain elongation factor 1 (bEF-1) was found to decrease exponentially with age and to decline parallel to the age-dependent decrease in total protein synthesis in both rodents. This decrement in bEF-1 activity fell within the range of reported age-related decreases in protein synthesis in in vitro systems. The factor was present in multiple forms; the lighter species predominated in older animals, whereas the young light form apparently disappeared with increasing age, and was replaced by other arising from the heavy form. Elongation factor 1 derived from young brains functioned as a rate-limiting component in polypeptide synthesis in previously saturated adult systems. The data suggest that bEF-1 has an important modulatory effect on total brain protein synthesis.

Aging↗
PubMed1999

Biological control of rodents using Sarcocystis singaporensis.

Parasites have been identified as an important factor in regulating vertebrate populations. In replicated field experiments (plots up to 4 ha) performed in Thailand we tested whether commensal and field rodents could be artificially infected and controlled with the host-restricted apicomplexan protozoon Sarcocystis singaporensis which is endemic in Southeast Asia. When bait-pellets containing high numbers of these parasites were consumed by rodents of three species (Rattus norvegicus, Rattus tiomanicus, Bandicota indica) in different agricultural habitats (chicken farm, oil palm plantation, ricefield), we observed a parasite-induced mortality ranging from 58% to 92%. Detection of merozoites of S. singaporensis in lung tissue samples of rats collected dead at the experimental sites using a species-specific monoclonal antibody confirmed that S. singaporensis was the causative agent of mortality. As observed with brown rats, the parasite's effect on the host was not related to sex. These experiments demonstrate for the first time that artificial infection of rodents with an endemic protozoon has the potential for effective population control.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Field efficacy of deltamethrin for rodent flea control in San Bernardino County, California, USA.

A study was conducted to determine the initial and residual activity of deltamethrin (0.05% dust) applied to rodent burrows (at approximately 14 g/burrow) against fleas in the Silverwood Lake area of San Bernardino County. In initial toxicity (2-d post-treatment), deltamethrin provided 97% flea control and in residual toxicity it resulted in 68% control of the rodent fleas at 15-d post-treatment. The flea fauna consisted of Oropsylla montana (89.9%) and Hoplopsylls anomalus (10.1%). All rodents captured in this study were California ground squirrels, Spermophilus beecheyi. In mark-release-recapture trials, using the microchip identification implant method at the treatment site, the recapture rate of rodents was 29% from 2- to 58-d post-treatment, declining to 21% after 98 d. In the tail-clip method at the treatment site, the recapture rate of 40% at 15-d post-treatment rose to 87% and 73% at 56- and 58-d post-treatment, respectively. At the control site, the recapture rate of 100% at 15-d post-post-treatment dropped to 20% after 98 d. In another trial at Camp Cedar Crest in the Running Springs area, deltamethrin applied to rodent burrows resulted in 70% control of fleas infesting S. beecheyi. Based on the two trials, deltamethrin showed a good initial control of rodent fleas in enzootic or epizootic plague control.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Normal breast lobular architecture in breast biopsy samples from breast cancer cases and benign disease controls.

Rodent studies suggest a relationship between lobular maturation and breast cancer risk. Human data are sparse, and were developed using whole mounts of mastectomy or mammoplasty samples, without consideration of menstrual phase in premenopausal women. We studied normal breast lobules in relation to cancer risk in 284 women, using surgical biopsy material (mean two sections and 43.2 lobular structures per subject): 167 were premenopausal; 89 with breast cancer (cases) and 78 undergoing benign breast biopsy (controls). Of 117 postmenopausal women, 67 were cases and 50 were controls. Normal lobular type was classified based on size, and was designated predominant if it constituted 60% or more of the total lobules classified. The control group showed 66% type I, 34% type II and 1% type III lobules while cases showed 69% type I, 31% type II and 7% type III structures. Predominant lobule type showed no association with cancer (p = 0.9). Postmenopausal women had a substantially higher proportion of type I lobules compared to premenopausal women, irrespective of the parity or cancer status (p < 0.001). Lobule type was not associated with menstrual phase classified by dates; however, when menstrual phase was classified using breast morphological characteristics, type I lobules were more abundant in follicular phase and type II in the luteal phase (p < 0.001). In conclusion, we did not observe a relationship between lobular architecture and breast cancer susceptibility when using smaller breast samples usually available in epidemiological studies, but these data highlight the need for menstrual phase stratification in future investigations.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

A method for assessing balance control in rodents.

Recent research has shown that after spinal cord injury, the nervous system reorganizes. Nevertheless, little is known of the effects of neural reorganization, or plasticity, on motor skills. In this work, we present a method that utilizes kinetic and kinematic analysis, for investigating balance control in a rodent model of incomplete spinal cord injury. In this setup, the animals sit unconstrained on their hindlimbs on a platform while they eat a Fruitloop. In this posture, the animal is supporting all the body weight on its hindquarters removing the need for the animal to support itself on its hindlimb or maintain appropriate forelimb-hindlimb coordination for functional gait. The platform is bolted to a force transducer to provide measurements of shear forces in orthogonal directions in the horizontal plane. Reflective markers on the hip and tail of the animal indicate sway of the animals body. Using this method the effect of extensive 12 week long treadmill locomotor training on balance control in rodents with incomplete thoracic spinal cord contusion injury (iSCI) was assessed. One iSCI rat did not undergo training, while a sham injured and 3 other iSCI rats underwent training. The shear forces and sway produced by the injured untrained rat were much larger than for the sham or the injured but trained rats. Stance width assessed from overground walking in a separate study was also larger in the injured untrained rat. These data suggest that balance control may be improved by a locomotor training paradigm. This simple method for assessing balance control could thus be utilized in longitudinal studies to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacological and locomotor therapies for repair and recovery after spinal cord injury.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Control of rickettsial diseases.

Prevention of rickettsial infections is aimed at individual control and epidemic measures (especially in epidemic typhus), vector and rodent control, milk pasteurization (in Q fever), chemoprophylaxis and immunoprophylaxis. In vector and rodent control, the main obstacle is the rise in resistance to insecticides and rodenticides. For this reason in vector control, apart from insecticides, enhancement of the natural immunity acquired by animals in response to tick infestation and vaccination with concealed tick antigens as well as the use of hormones, chemosterilants and genetic manipulation can also be considered. For short-term high-risk exposure, doxycycline may be an effective prophylaxis of illness but may not prevent infection with scrub typhus or spotted fever group rickettsiae. At present, for specific prevention by vaccination, only Q fever vaccines are available for common use. However, development of subunit vaccines, namely immunogenic rickettsial proteins, cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, seems to be very promising.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Environmental factors associated with rodent infestations in Argentine poultry farms.

1. Seasonal variations in rodent infestations were studied at poultry farms in central Argentina as well as the environmental factors associated with rodent infestations at poultry farms. 2. During the summer and winter of 1998 rodent infestation was monitored at 10 poultry farms by means of tracking stations, and 21 environmental variables were selected that a priori could be related with the extent of rodent infestation. 3. There was a higher rodent infestation in winter than in summer. 4. Species detected by rodent sightings at the poultry farms included Akodon azarae, Calomys spp. (C. laucha and possibly C. musculinus) and Mus musculus. 5. In summer, rodent infestation was positively associated with the perimeter of the farm, whereas there was an inverse relationship with the maintenance conditions of the sheds. In winter, rodent infestation was positively associated with the percentage of the borders of the farm covered with vegetation, and with the amount of plant cover, especially the amount of plant cover which was above 20 cm in height. 6. There was no significant relationship between rodent infestation and the time lag since the last application of rodenticide (first-generation anticoagulant) at the farms. 7. These results suggest that strategies for controlling rodents based solely on chemical methods may not be good enough for efficient rodent control. Farms which are properly managed, with a better control of vegetation growth at both the perimeter and within the internal area, in addition to a higher maintenance of sheds have appreciably lower rodent infestations.

Animal Husbandry↗
PubMed2006

Ecologically based management of rodents in the real world: applied to a mixed agroecosystem in Vietnam.

Rodents cause significant damage to lowland irrigated rice crops in the Red River Delta of Vietnam. A four-year study was conducted in 1999-2002 to examine the effectiveness of applying rodent control practices using the principles of ecologically based pest management. Four 100-150 ha study sites adjacent to villages were selected and farmers on two treated sites were asked to follow a set of rodent management practices, while farmers on the untreated sites were asked not to change their typical practices. Farmers on the treated sites were encouraged to use trap-barrier systems (TBS's; 0.065-ha early planted crop surrounded by a plastic fence with multiple capture traps; one TBS for every 10-15 ha), to work together over large areas by destroying burrows in refuge habitats soon after planting (before the rats reestablish in the fields and before the onset of breeding), synchronizing planting and harvesting of the their rice crops, cleaning up weeds and piles of straw, and keeping bund (embankment) size small (<30 cm) to prevent burrowing. A 75% reduction in the use of rodenticides and plastic barrier fences (without traps or an early crop) was achieved on treated sites. The abundance of rodents was low after implementation of the management practices across all sites. There was no evidence for an effect of treatment on the abundance of rodents captured each month using live-capture traps, and no difference in damage between treatments or in yields obtained from the rice crops. Therefore, ecologically based rodent management was equally effective as typical practices for rodent management. Farmers on the treated sites spent considerably less money applying rodent control practices, which was reflected in the comparative increase in the partial benefit:cost of applying ecologically based rodent management from 3:1 on treated sites and untreated sites prior to the implementation of treatments to 17:1 on treated sites in the final year of the project.

Agriculture↗