Projects with DARPA grant – Grups Operatius 2023

Project name: BLACKRATS. RODENTS CONTROL WITH ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES TO ANTICOAGULANTS. IMPROVEMENTS IN EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICACY, AND REDUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Participants: GRUP GEPORK SA (Leader), ASSOCIACIÓ CATALANA DE PRODUCTORS DE PORCÍ (PORCAT) (Beneficiary), MIQUEL AVÍCOLA SA (Beneficiary), SELECCIÓN BATALLÉ SA (Beneficiary), INNOVACC CLÚSTER CATALÀ DE LA CARN I LA PROTEÏNA ALTERNATIVA (coordinador), ICHN. I LA SEVA DELEGACIÓ GRUP NATURALISTES D’OSONA (Non- beneficiary), DEPARTMENT OF WETLAND ECOLOGY, ESTACIÓN BIOLÓGICA DOÑANA,  CSIC (OPI), GESTIÓ DE RESIDUS I BIODIVERSITAT, SL (contracted comapny).

Budget: 134.500,01 €

Grant: 109.122,65 €

Project summary:

Rodents are abundant in pig and poultry farms and in some areas, more than 90% of farms are infested with rats and mice. They are a biological hazard and essential to control, due to their voraciousness and ability to transmit diseases. They also create an epidemiological bridge between wild animals and birds, and between different batches of animals. As a result, rodents can spread infections to successive batches.

The elimination of rodents is very important within biosecurity and should be considered as a critical control point in HACCP systems.

If biosecurity standards on farms are analyzed, it is necessary to ensure that the sealing facilities work properly (windows, bird netting, access doors, absence of holes) to prevent other birds or rodents from accessing the buildings. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid the presence of rodents, keeping the facilities in perfect condition and clean and through an integrated rat control program, including bait and traps, preventing rodents from accessing feed deposits or silos and preventing it from being deposited on the floor or accumulating in the feeders. This program will be intensified when the building is emptied, for which the water flow to the troughs will be closed and all feed will be removed from the building, and then rodent bait will be placed, which will be maintained during the time the building is empty.

Since the early 1990s, state and Catalan regulations required livestock farms to have a rat control, disinfestation and disinfection plan; the use of rodenticides spread throughout Catalonia with the use of active ingredients based on anticoagulants (Difetialona, ​​Bromadiolona, ​​Brodifacoum, Difenacum, …). Progressively and slowly, technicians who monitor wildlife began to record significant reductions in some populations of carnivore species (birds of prey and mammals) up to the extinction at a local level (Baucells i Vila, 2002, Martorell, et. al. in Franch, et. al., 2021) of some species typical of agricultural and rural environments (duck, weasel and weasel) whose diet is based on different species of rodents.

The main objective of the project is to assess the effectiveness of cholecalciferol-based rodenticides in the control of rodents on livestock farms of different characteristics and problems and to develop a protocol for the use of non-toxic rodenticides. Therefore, a pilot plan will be developed on 8 farms of different characteristics and problems in order to see the effectiveness of cholecalciferol as an active ingredient in rodent control.

Project co-funded by the EU through intervention 7161 of the PEPAC 2023-2027