Field efficacy of anticoagulant rodenticides against rat infestation in oil palm plantation

Field efficacy of anticoagulant rodenticides against rat infestation in oil palm plantation was carried out in a comparative study between five rodenticide baits. They were first-generation anticoagulant rodenticide baits, coumatetralyl, chlorophacinone and warfarin, and second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide baits, flocoumafen and brodifacoum. A control plot was left untreated for comparison purposes. In general, all treatments were effective to reduce the fresh rat damage on oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) below the threshold level (5.0%) except for warfarin bait treatment. In the final round of baiting (5th round), the flocoumafen bait recorded the lowest fresh rat damage on FFB at 1.54 ± 0.14%. Coumatetralyl, chlorophacinone and brodifacoum recorded 2.95 ± 0.73%, 2.42 ± 0.57% and 4.30 ± 0.53% of fresh rat damage on FFB at the end of the study. The least effective was warfarin treatment which recorded 5.40 ± 0.18% in the final round of baiting. Only flocoumafen, coumatetralyl and chlorophacinone baits recorded more than 70.00% of rat damage reduction throughout the study as compared to pre-treatment. The brodifacoum treatment recorded rat damage reduction up to 58.70% and warfarin treatment was in the range of 13.58%-33.62%. All the rodenticide treatments managed to reduce the relative abundance of the estimated rat population in the field at the end of the study, except in the control plot.

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