Dr. L. Brader, FAO/UNDP, Plant Protection Service (1976), reported
 rat damage losses of cotton in 1962 at between 50 and 200 kg per
 0.4 ha in an area of 30,000 feddans.

A viable rodent research program should include: (1) damage assess-
ment training; (2) species identification; (3) testing of chemical and
bait acceptance; and (4) timing of experimentation during the year.
The need for a second DWRC biologist to handle rodent research and
development of controls was discussed.

Personnel and training

During early 1978, Mr. Sadig Beshir, Ornithologist and Head of the
Bird and Rodent Section, PPD, took an assignment with FAO in
Pakistan. His vacancy was filled in May by Mr. Abdel Zarrough,
Entomologist and Head of PPD station at Gedaref, Kassala Province.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Babiker Ali, Vertebrate Pest Biologist,
returned with an M.S. degree from Bowling Green State University to
join the Bird and Rodent Section at Khartoum.

Messrs. Mohamed Hamza and Saeed Mohamed Suliman continue their
training as USAID participants in Master's programs at Bowling Green
State University. They will undertake thesis problems at the Denver
Wildlife Research Center under the direction of DWRC staff members.
We anticipate their return to the PPD, Bird and Rodent Section, by
January 1980.

Academic, laboratory, and field training are an integral part of the
quelea project. This training over the next several years will pro-
vide a nucleus of personnel to handle future research, training, and
extension activities in the area of vertebrate damage research and
control.

Cooperation with international and national organizations

USAID/DWRC were invited by UNDP/FAO to participate with five East
African countries in its grain-eating bird project from 1978 to 1981
by demonstrating research and control methodology and technology for
direct crop protection programs. This project is discussed in more
detail under the program development section of this report.

Since the USAID/DWRC quelea project is established with the Government
of Sudan's Plant Protection Department and is fully committed to
vertebrate pest problems in Sudan, all such collaborative activities
outside of the Sudan will be coordinated with PPD. East African
activities will involve temporary duty assignments for the resident
DWRC representative in Sudan and a DWRC biologist on an ad hoc basis;
all costs of the assignments, excluding salaries of the biologist,
will be borne by FAO.