1Present mailing address: AINP on Vertebrate Pest Management, A. P. Rice Research Institute& RARS, Maruteru-534 122. West Godavari Dist., Andhra Pradesh.
2Vertebrate Pest Management Division, National Institute of Plant Health Management, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Telangana, India
*Corresponding Author Email: raoento@yahoo.co.in
Controlling the rodents is a major challenge, especially in poultry structures due to continuous food availability coupled with favourable environment for their hiding and breeding. Rodenticide baiting is not reminiscent in poultry sheds considering its risk to the birds and often it fails due to poor bait intake where available of alternate food is plenty. Two different baits (poultry feed and broken rice) added with two bait additives (dry fish and chopped onion) were evaluated in two types of kill traps (snap trap, palmyra basket trap) for capturing the rodents in poultry premises. The study was conducted at Directorate of Poultry Research (DPR), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad in six poultry sheds housing 600 birds each with 10 traps each per shed. Palmyra basket trap was significantly superior with 205 rat catches over the 80 rat catches of metallic snap trap in 1080 trap nights. Trapping with indigenous palmyra basket trap was found one of the quick and safe effective rodent control techniques in poultry.
Poultry, Rodents, Palymyra basket trap, Bait, Bait additives
