Laboratory bioassays of diphacinone baits


Six batches of a pelletized commercial diphacinone bait were subjected
to an accelerated shelf-life test for 30 days at 500 C and then bio-
assayed in a two-choice, 15-day feeding study. For a product to be
considered satisfactory in this type of test, the average mortality
and treated food consumption for each bait should be 90 and 33 per-
cent, respectively. Results for albino rats are given in Table 7.
These data show that the baits remained highly toxic but that palata-
bility may have been altered by the shelf-life test. Table 8 gives
the results of tests with albino mice. Interestingly, the average
consumption of treated bait was greater for the mice than the rats,
but mice mortality was slightly less. The results of these bioassays
indicate that these baits would be effective in a field control pro-
gram, especially if there was marginal availability of alternate
foods.