• Syngenta spotlights industry rodenticide resistance monitoring at Cereals
• Increasing spread of rodenticide resistance threatens on farm control
• Rodent presence risks safe food production and farm family health
• Syngenta Talon rodenticide products offer resistance breaking technology

Rodenticide resistance continues an insidious spread across the UK that threatens the success of rodent control strategies. Farm surveillance of its incidence and adopting resistance breaking technologies can effectively stop the spread, according to Syngenta Pest Management specialist, Richard Moseley.

Speaking at the Cereals event at Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm (10-11 June), Richard urged farmers to take advantage of free resistance testing to identify potential issues. “Effective rodent control is essential for safe food production on farms and preventing costly losses and damage, as well as the threat to the health of workers and animals on the farm,” he warns.

“Rodenticide resistance can render some of the older technologies ineffective, resulting in more bait entering the environment to no beneficial effect. Using farm surveillance to identify where resistant populations have developed enables the appropriate use of second-generation rodenticides, such as brodifacoum. That enables resistant rats and mice to be targeted with the minimum use of rodenticide active.”

Syngenta’s Talon products all contain the resistance-breaking brodifacoum in a range of formulations suitable for on farm situations, including pellets, maize grain, soft pasta, wax blocks and the renowned highly palatable paste formulation, Talon Soft XT. Importantly, the formulations all deliver a single-feed fatal dose for rats, to ensure rapid results and reducing overall bait consumption.

The Syngenta Talon product range is already well established and extensively used by pest controllers primarily in urban situations, including domestic and commercial business pest control. The same products, support and technical expertise is now more widely available for rural and farm applications.

Richard highlights the pest control industry’s Stop the Spread campaign, operated by the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU), has identified the importance of rural pest control to prevent increasing issues of resistance in urban areas from extending. The use of farm surveillance to monitor the extent of resistance in known gaps between cities can better formulate appropriate strategies, he believes.

“Surveillance monitoring calls for the submission of fresh rodent tails, ideally sourced from rats that have been trapped or shot, rather than poisoned. Farms and rural pest controllers are particularly well suited to collecting appropriate samples,” says Richard. Farms should aim to collect up to three tails per site to build up an accurate picture. 

Recent changes in regulations relating to the purchase of rodenticides, with the requirement for farmers or their staff to now undertake certified training in rodenticide use, could see more farms using external professional pest control services to instigate and maintain rodent control options, he points out. 

“Employing the skills and experience of professional pest controllers can prove more cost effective in the long term, through more progressive implementation of preventative measures and the targeted use of resistance breaking technologies. It meets the requirements of assurance and supply chain obligations, as well as reducing losses and protecting family and staff from rodent risks.” 

Farmers and visitors to Cereals can get more information on the CRRU Stop the Spread campaign, the resistance testing surveillance kits and the Talon rodenticide range on Syngenta stand 940 or go to the website: https://www.syngentappm.com/uk