Australia is likely to experience the worst mouse plague in living memory by late spring-summer 2011-12 based on state government reports.
The expected decline in mouse populations this winter has not eventuated; it is principally thought due to the significant food supply of rain-damaged crops from the 2010 harvest.
Earlier this year, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) contracted the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (IA CRC) to deliver new research and development on improved application of the current registered zinc phosphide bait.
This included a review of application rate; timing of repeat applications; paddock perimeter application options; and the development and communication of management practices that could influence mice populations.
This information will improve grower application of cost effective baiting with zinc phosphide and results have already been incorporated into a revised GRDC fact sheet sent out to industry in September 2011.
The GRDC has also contracted the IA CRC to conduct surveillance trapping in combination with existing mouse plague models to determine potential mouse numbers in the 2012 season.
There has been unprecedented demand for zinc phosphide bait which has resulted in the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) approving a number of emergency permits in 2011, including permits for regional manufacture of zinc phosphide bait.
The APVMA have indicated to the GRDC that full label registration of current zinc phosphide bait batching permits will require submission of a full OH&S package.
GRDC crop protection manager, Dr Rohan Rainbow, said a joint research project to develop an occupational health and safety package to potentially support future on-farm batching of mouse baits has been approved for investment by the GRDC.
The research project will be majority funded by GRDC, with a co-investment by the South Australian State Government, and will be led by Associate Professor Tony Lower of the University of Sydney School of Public Health Australian Centre for Agricultural Health & Safety.
Dr Rainbow said GRDC is responding to a significant knowledge gap.
“The project has come as a result of recommendations from the SA Ministerial mouse task force and extensive discussion and endorsement by the National Mouse Management Working Group, a coalition of state and federal governments, the Invasive Animals CRC, the APVMA, GRDC and Grain Producers Australia (GPA),” he said.
“The research will take up to 12 months to complete, and the outcome will be subject to APVMA review.
“However, if it is successful, the outcomes of the project will be put into the public domain and will significantly benefit the entire industry,” Dr Rainbow said.
Research and development spokesperson with the GPA, Andrew Weidemann, believes this is a significant breakthrough for farmers.
“While this project will not assist the industry during the plague this season, it will support future label registrations for regional manufacture of bait and potentially provide scope for a registration to safely mix bait on farm, which is something growers across Australia’s grain growing regions have been calling for,” he said
“We need to develop a greater range of cost effective control solutions for the future,” Mr Weidemann said.
The GRDC has also signed agreements as an investment partner in the Invasive Animals CRC currently being considered in a rebid.
This is a tied investment to develop an alternative rodenticide product which has a lower toxicity rating and risk to human health, and potential for grower batching of bait which would potentially resolve a number of manufacturing and supply bottlenecks.
Mice are impacting an estimated three million hectares in Australia’s southern grain growing region, with early season losses to date of over $200 million and this is now escalating significantly with spring and expected harvest damage.
A mouse control fact sheet can be downloaded from www.grdc.com.au/pestlinks
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