Field Efficacy of Anticoagulant Rodenticides Against Rat Infestation in Oil Palm Plantation

Abstract

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 (5 th 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.

OIL PALM ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA AND R&D PROGRESS IN 2022

“…The richness, in terms of the scale of the genetic variation of these E. guineensis and E. oleifera germplasm accessions was quantified based on their phenotypic characters and genetic make-up. Using multivariate analyses, most of the important traits in E. oleifera and MPOB-Cameroon oil palm germplasms were shown to display a wide range of variation (Tun Mohd Salim et al, 2022;Yaakub et al, 2022). Variables that contribute most to the variation were identified and could be utilised to help determine the population of interest for regeneration and selective breeding for oil palm enhancement programs.…”