Potential for cell culture techniques as a wildlife management tool for screening primary repellents management

The identification of new chemical repellents for wildlife damage managemen t is impeded by the need to perform cumbersome and expensive behavioral tes ts. Here, we report the development of in vitro cell culture methods to inc rease the speed and efficiency of repellent screening while reducing costs, as well as the number of animals necessary for research. Our methods explo it the fact that effective primary repellents depend on the stimulation of pain receptors. We cultured trigeminal nociceptors (pain receptors) from No rway rat (Rattus norvegicus, laboratory strain), white leghorn chicken (Gal lus gallus), coyote (Canis latrans), white-railed deer (Odocoileus virginia nus) and Canada goose (Branta canadensis), and then applied digital fluores cence microscopy to measure changes in intracellular calcium (an index of c ellular activation) in response to applications of known and effective repe llents. Capsaicin, bradykinin and acetylcholine were more effective stimuli for rat, coyote, and deer neurons than cells from chicken. (C) 2000 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.