Fn. Mastrota et Ja. Mench, EVALUATION OF TASTE REPELLENTS WITH NORTHERN BOBWHITES FOR DETERRING INGESTION OF GRANULAR PESTICIDES, Environmental toxicology and chemistry, 14(4), 1995, pp. 631-638
The risk of accidental poisoning of birds may be reduced by adding an
aversive-tasting chemical to granular pesticides. The efficacy of eigh
t taste repellents in deterring consumption was therefore evaluated in
a game species, the northern bobwhite (Colinus virgininnus). Avoidanc
e was measured using a two-cup preference test in which treated feeds
were paired with untreated feeds in one experiment, and against other
treated feeds in another experiment. All repellents tested were signif
icantly avoided without evidence of habituation during the 5-d test pe
riod. The most effective repellents were d-pulegone and quinine hydroc
hloride. Methyl anthranilate, 2-heptanone, and lithium chloride also p
erformed reasonably well, whereas sucrose octaacetate and cinnamaldehy
de performed relatively poorly. The d-pulegone was further evaluated u
sing a one-cup test with treated day granules. The effects of adding d
-pulegone and/or a red dye (erythrosine) were evaluated with a two-way
factorial design. Addition of d-pulegone strongly reduced consumption
of granules (p < 0.001), whereas addition of erythrosine had no signi
ficant effect when added alone or in combination with d-pulegone. Our
results indicate that treating pesticide granules with a potent taste
repellent, such as d-pulegone, is a promising approach to reduce the r
isk of their ingestion by birds.