Wildlife Damage Management, Internet Center for

 

Date of this Version

10-1983

Citation

Proceedings Ninth Bird Control Seminar, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, October 4-6, 1983. Ed. William B. Jackson and Beth Jackson Dodd

Comments

Copyright (c) 1983 Huo Ping Pan, Donald T. Harke, Allen R. Stickley, Jr., and David G. Decker

Abstract

In 1966 the U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, since renamed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was considering the use of commercial tetraethylpyrophosphate (TEPP) for spraying problem bird roosts. Although TEPP was known to be a fast degrading organophosphate, the Bureau decided that a determination of TEPP residues on birds sprayed under simulated field conditions would be useful in reaching a decision on possible use of this material. The determination was done with an enzymatic Warburg manometric method for measuring the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), a major cause of neurotoxication. It was found that at simulated roost temperatures of 7·8°C with relative humidity of 57·60%, the AChE inhibition activity of TEPP in red·winged blackbirds diminished rapidly in the first 2 days. However, after 19 days, an indicated 2.2% (2.8% statistically possible) remained as cholinergic inhibition residues that could be hazardous to humans or nontarget species, considerably more than 99% loss in 45.2 hr at 26°C that had been previously reported. This information, among others, was used by the Bureau in deciding not to pursue the use of TEPP in spraying problem bird roosts.

Share

COinS