Environmentally safe performance of products for management of commensal rodents in Serbia

Abstract

Management of commensal rodents using environmentally safe methods is a current trend in the scientific community. Data provided by the World Health Organization and various sanitation and epidemiological services have shown that rodents destroy around 33 million tons of food intended for human nourishment every year. Continued use of chemical rodenticides over a number of years is known to provoke resistance and cause non-target poisoning of animals and people, as well as environmental pollution. This should be prevented by timely redirection to the available methods that are environmentally safe. Several years of our research of the efficacy of different formulations of an environmentally safe product based on sodium selenite (0.1%) in various livestock facilities and food storages have traced a path for environmentally safe management of commensal rodents. Tests have been conducted on populations of brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) and house mouse (Mus musculus). Rodent numbers were assessed according to EPPO methodology. Product rations of 10-30 g for the mouse and 50-100 g for the rat were offered to rodents in bait boxes. Our data show that baits ready for use (RB) had the highest efficacy of 99% and 96.5% in controlling Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus, respectively. In some experiments, however, sodium selenite baits had unsatisfactory efficacy. No accidental poisoning of non-target organisms was recorded in any trial. The results of this research give us a better insight into possibilities for using sodium selenite as an environmentally safe rodenticide on livestock farms and in food storages.

Keywords

• ecologically safe substance
• sodium-selenite
• efficacy
• strategy
• food safety