<p> Feral pigs (<i>Sus scrofa</i>) are one of the most ecologically harmful species in North America and are expanding across the U.S. at alarming rates. Feral pigs are an extremely prolific, destructive species and native ecosystems will continue to suffer unless resource managers intervene to reduce the damages caused by feral pigs. In 2015, in cooperation with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department–Kerr Wildlife Management Area, I investigated the efficacy of several novel feral pig control prototype products (i.e., toxic baits) to: 1) compare lethality and length of intoxication times between 13 microencapsulated sodium nitrite (MESN) formulations in pseudo gavage dosed captive feral pigs; 2) evaluate residual sodium nitrite levels and potential risks of vomited MESN bait on non-target species; and 3) assess the lethality of 5 unique sodium nitrite formulations in group pen feeding trials. Pseudo gavage trials resulted in 4 MESN formulations achieving a 100% lethality rate with delayed emergence of intoxication symptoms compared to previous literature. Unexpectedly, gastric coatings delayed the onset of intoxication to the same degree as enteric coatings. Vomit appeared to be positively correlated with the delivery of a lethal dose of MESN paste bait as 55/56 pigs (98.21%) vomited and died. Residual sodium nitrite in vomited bait was 90% less than the sodium nitrite concentrations in the delivered paste matrix. Despite this reduction, vomited bait could serve as a potential threat to non-target and secondary consumers, although the degradation time, residual persistence, and probability of non-target vomit consumption remains unknown. Group pen trials, testing 5 unique sodium nitrite formulations, resulted in ?80.95% overall lethality, with the greatest individual formulation lethality equaling 96.77%. Results from these studies will be beneficial in determining a MESN feral swine toxicant formulation for registration with the United States Environmental Protection Agency in the future.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10270093 |
| Date | 03 May 2017 |
| Creators | Lawrence, Grant S. |
| Publisher | Sul Ross State University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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