Trends in the development of mammalian pest control technology in New Zealand

The Research Strategy for a ‘Predator Free’ New Zealand

“…For predator management on true islands, the scale of eradications achieved has increased logarithmically since the 1960s (Clout & Russell 2006); our ability to suppress predator populations on the mainland has likewise scaled up (Parkes & Murphy 2003). The DOC Pest Summit in 2012 highlighted that the factor that has facilitated this capacity and capability has been multiple, complementary, and often synergistic strands of research into toxins (Eason et al 2010, Blackie et al 2013, traps (Gillies et al 2012, Warburton andGormley 2015), surveillance techniques (Sweetapple andNugent 2011, Jones et al 2015), ecology Veltman 2006, Kelly et al 2013), control and detection probability models Ramsey 2007, Clayton et al 2011), and social licence to operate (Allen et al 2014, Russell 2014, among others (Eason et al 2017).…”

Global Trends in the Development of Rodenticides and Mammalian Pest Control Technologies

“…Despite the re-registration of 1080 in New Zealand there still remain concerns over how it is used, and with the emergence of resistance to second-generation anticoagulants in some populations of rodents, as well as residues in wildlife being identified globally (Young and De Lai 1997, Stone et al 1999, US EPA 2004, US EPA 2008, interest in non-anticoagulants (or at least less persistent low residue vertebrate pesticides) has been revived and more new acute substances have been investigated , Eason et al 2014, Shapiro et al 2015, Eason et al 2017. This interest has been coupled with the questionable humaneness of second-generation anticoagulants in larger vertebrate pests (Littin et al 2002) and has led to research and 6 development focused on new toxins, more effective lures, resetting systems, and remote sensing.…”

“…Sodium nitrite was registered in 2014 for control of possums and feral pigs (Shapiro et al 2015) and is currently undergoing research for registration in the US for feral pig control. PAPP and sodium nitrite have been termed red blood cell toxins, due to their mode of action through induction of methaemoglobinaemia (Eason et al 2017). Desirable features of these new toxins are: 1) they are lethal to the target species, 2) they are relatively humane, 3) they are orally active and rapidly absorbed, 4) they have relatively short half-lives in blood/organs, 5) they are not persistent in the environment, 6) they do not lead to secondary poisoning, and 7) they have an antidote or do not need one, in the case of norbormide.…”

“…Targeted species include stoats, rats, and possums. Field experience continues to be gained alongside improvements in engineering design; however, funding for what was emerging as an integrated approach has been reduced since 2015 (Eason et al 2017).…”

“…In practical terms this will involve completing the development and validation of individual technologies; then reaching beyond current approaches and optimising cost-effective procedures for integrating traditional methods (e.g., toxin baiting) with recently developed approaches such as species-specific toxins, potent lures, real-time monitoring, drones, technologies from completely different fields such as AI and IoF, big data handling, and testing at local scale as a platform for landscape scale extrapolation. Emerging technologies still requiring significant research and development include advances in wireless technology for species recognition; the next generation of self-resetting traps; unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); and improved species-specific toxin-delivery systems (Murphy et al 2018) enhanced with advanced lures and new toxins to combine low-residue characteristics with selectivity and humaneness (Eason et al 2017). UAVs may soon have the capability of carrying >15-kg payloads to deliver precise amounts of toxin to exact locations to target pests (Morley et al 2017).…”