Palatability of bird repellents to Rattus norvegicus

Abstract

The palatability to captive, mostly laboratory-bred, Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) of cereal-based baits containing 0.02 g kg-1 brodifacoum, with and without bird-repellent additives, was compared in a no-choice experimental design. Methyl anthranilate (25 g kg-1), dimethyl anthranilate (25 g kg-1) and cinnamamide (2.5 g kg-1) reduced bait consumption by the rats, but all except one rat ate enough bait to receive a lethal dose. Cinnamamide (1 g kg-1), ortho-aminoacetophenone (0.1 g kg-1) and tannic acid (20 g kg-1) did not reduce bait consumption and all rats died after eating baits. The concentration of cinnamamide palatable to rats has only a low and short-lived repellency to birds, so it does not warrant further investigation. However, ortho-aminoacetophenone and tannic acid should now be field-tested for palatability to all three rat species in New Zealand and for repellency to native New Zealand birds.

Olfactory experience primes the heat shock transcription factor HSF-1 to enhance the expression of molecular chaperones in C. elegans

“…The “grape-like” odorant 2-aminoacetophenone (2AA) is one such compound synthesized relatively early in the growth cycle and is enriched when P. aeruginosa infects animal tissues, such as the wounds of human burn victims or the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis (33, 34). 2AA is responsible for the attractive behavior of Drosophila melanogaster toward the pathogen (33, 35) as well as the aversive behavior of vertebrate species such as birds and mice from Pseudomonas (36, 37). We tested whether this compound was, at least in part, responsible for the learned enhanced aversion of C. elegans to PA14.…”