Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Due to the slow-acting nature of the avicide, DRC-1339 (3-chloro-p-toluidine hydrochloride), birds may travel considerable distances following ingestion of lethal quantities of treated bait. Confirmation of DRC-1339 bait consumption in bird carcasses collected temporally and spatially removed from a baiting site has been problematic, particularly after a prolonged period of time, due to the decomposition of the carcass. To establish a temporal baseline for analytical methods developed for determining DRC-1339 residues in bird tissues, mourning doves were fed 2% DRC-1339-treated rice or control untreated rice. Birds were euthanized after 24 hrs. Bird carcasses were allowed to decompose for 1, 2, 7, 14, or 21 days at ambient temperatures (22.4 ± 0.7°C). GI tract and breast tissue samples were collected and solvent extracted for analysis by GC/MS for DRC-1339 residues. Residues could be detected in the GI tract samples up to 14 days after dosing. Linear regression analysis of the data indicated the possibility of detecting residues in GI tract samples for up to 23 days under similar environmental conditions for carcass decomposition. These results provide a time frame under which it is possible to confirm DRC-1339 bait consumption in birds by analyzing for residues in tissues from carcasses collected after a baiting operation.