A Study On Damage And Control Of Oryctes Rhinoceros L. (Coleoptera : Scrabaeidae) In Zero Burning Replant Oil Palm Areas Of Felda Lepar Utara, Pahang

A study on the implication of zero burning in the oil palm replanting program was carried out in FELDA Plantations Sdn. Bhd., Lepar Utara Complex, Pahang. Damages caused by rhinoceros beetles (RB) were assessed on different planting materials, palms of different ages, palms planted on various land topographies (hillside, hilltop, roadside, border to mature palm, swamp and valley) and various locations. Damages on oil palm trees in all topographies were not significantly different (p>0.05). The 0 - 1 year tissue cultured plants have higher damages caused by RB as compared to D x P (Dura x Pisifera)

Diet preferences and reproduction of translocated barn owl, Tyto alba javanica in captivity

Five non-paired-translocated wild caught barn owl (Tyto alba javanica) transferred from Jerantut, Pahang in Peninsular to Lahad Datu in Sabah, Malaysia were tested for diet preference by size, and species and fecundity in captivity. Testing was done in flight cages where owls were free to select from a combination of three local rodent species distinguished into two size categories; large and small. Jacobs’ index confirmed that smaller rats were taken in greater numbers and took the shortest number of days to 100% consumption at Day 5 than larger ones. Preference for body parts consumed varied according to diet size and species. In the same period as the prey preference study, two females reproduced twice ranging from intervals of 44 to 63 days with an average clutch size of 6.8 eggs. Hatching rates ranged from 0% to 83% and fledging rates ranged from 0% to 75%. These results may have practical importance in the propagation of barn owls in their new environment as they will be exposed to different prey in terms of species and size range

Soft release of barn owl from nestlings for the purpose of rat control

Barn owl (Tyto javanica) is common throughout the oil palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia. It’s significant role in providing biological control of rodent pest is well established. However, in Sabah and Sarawak, local population of the owl is not particularly known. Therefore, several translocation programs have been implemented to establish sustainable barn owl populations in Borneo; with certain degree of success. Past experience has shown that introducing adult owls from their original residence in Peninsular Malaysia to Sabah and Sarawak were largely unsuccessful or would take longer time to become established in their new homes. In this introduction program a soft release approach was implemented for acclimatization purposes to ensure a promising success of introducing Barn owls in a plantation. In this study, three pairs of owlets of 17 days to 35 days old, were retrieved from their respective nest boxes in the field. The six owlets were secured from Felda Sahabat Lahad Datu, Sabah were translocated to Wilmar’s Sapi Plantations in Telupid, Sabah where an aviary with newly furnished facilities are provided. The owlets were harvested from an established population in Lahad Datu, which originally brought in from the Peninsular Malaysia. The aviary is equipped with three feeding arenas (with individual nest boxes installed) and one holding area for handfeeding and treatment purposes. The six owlets are closely monitored and raised for six months where food intake, body weight and body measurements were recorded. The owlets were manually fed with rats supplied from the plantation twice a day, in small quantities and gradually increased in accordance with their growth in size. After six months of rearing, two Barn owls of 6.5 and 6.7 months old respectively were chosen for release based on their opposite sex and different parental originfor greater breeding fitness. Transmitters were attached on the body of the candidates for radio tracking and mapping of foraging area. The owls were released after being latched inside a nest box 100m from the aviary for 48 hours for acclimatization. Theowls were radio tracked and radio fixes plotted to analyze the home range and exploratory behavior. The rearing of the first batch of the six owlets from nestlings was a success with zero fatality. This indeed contributed substantially to a successful step towards the establishment of the local barn owl nucleus population. Subsequent transfer of owlets has been planned and the second batch is now being fed and raised in the aviary for the next release

Effects of rodenticide on growth of nestling barn owl, Tyto alba javanica in oil palm plantations

This study investigated the effects of the first generation anti-coagulant rodenticide, chlorophacinone and the second generation rodenticide, bromadiolone on nestling growth of barn owl, Tyto alba javanica in oil palm plantations. Forty-two nestlings were selected from rodenticide-free, chlorophacinone and bromadiolone treated plots. Growth rates of nestlings were measured by taking body weight, culmen length, tarsus length and wing length on a periodic basis. Dead nestlings were collected during daily observations. Autopsies were carried out to determine cause of mortality and internal organ (livers) were harvested for analysis of residue by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Rodenticide-free plot scored the highest fledging success, i.e. 71.4% (n = 14) at 52 days after hatching. In chlorophacinone treated plot, six out of 14 nestlings or 42.85% successfully grew to fledging age of 52 days. In bromadiolone treated plot, only five or 35.75% (n = 14) of nestlings survived to fledging age. Three out of nine nestling carcasses found in bromadiolone treated area were collected for the analysis. Of these, two were detected with bromadiolone residue measuring 0.33 μg g-1 and 0.41 μg g-1 wet weight, respectively. In chlorophacinone treated plot, three out of eight carcasses were collected for analysis. The residue of chlorophacinone detected ranged from 0.18 μg g-1 to 0.21 μg g-1. Nestlings that survived in the rodenticide-free area showed higher measurements for body weight, tarsus, culmen and wing length compared to bromadiolone and chlorophacinone treated plots

Secondary poisoning in captive barn owls Tyto alba javanica from feeding with rats poisoned with chlorophacinone and bromadiolone

The poten­tial sec­ondary haz­ards of two anti-coagulant roden­ti­cides com­monly used in Malaysian oil palm plan­ta­tions were eval­u­ated through feed­ing tri­als with cap­tive barn owls. A total of 12 adult barn owls (six pairs) were assigned to two roden­ti­cide treat­ments and a con­trol. The two treat­ments were rats fed with bro­ma­di­olone (0.005% a.i) and chloropha­ci­none (0.005% a.i) respec­tively. All roden­ti­cide treated owls received four poi­soned rats at Day 1, 3, 5 and 7 and a non-poisoned rat on each inter­ven­ing day for 30 days. Each barn owl of the con­trol group received a non-poisoned rat through­out the study. The reli­a­bil­ity of a non-invasive tech­nique such as an esti­ma­tion of anti-coagulant roden­ti­cide residue in regur­gi­tated pel­lets and blood sam­ples, were also eval­u­ated. Barn owls showed behav­ioural aber­ra­tions such as coarse breath­ing, fre­quent clos­ing of the eyes and reduced fly­ing activ­ity as early as Day 5 after con­sum­ing three poi­soned rats. The weight recorded at Day 7 after treat­ment showed that all treated owls reg­is­tered a reduc­tion in weight. The owls in the con­trol group on the con­trary gained weight. Bro­ma­di­olone and chloropha­ci­none were found to have high degree of tox­i­c­ity on cap­tive barn owls. After feed­ing the birds with as few as four poi­soned rats in a week the signs of tox­i­c­ity in birds such as haem­or­rhages (beak) and haematoma (wing) were found. This find­ing is very cru­cial since barn owls have been reported to con­sume up to three rats per night and this would cer­tainly increase their poten­tial expo­sure to lethal sec­ondary poi­son­ing. The detec­tion of residue in the pel­lets regur­gi­tated by barn owls can be used to indi­cate expo­sure of the lat­ter to both com­pounds. How­ever, as the blood residue method is lim­ited to the expo­sure dura­tion of the com­pounds, this tech­nique can only detect recent expo­sure to bro­ma­di­olone and chloropha­ci­none. The amount of residue detected in the pel­let sam­ples for chloropha­ci­none was 69.9 to 81.6 μg per day or equiv­a­lent to 17.2% to 27.4% of the com­pound con­sumed and cor­re­spond­ing value for bro­ma­di­olone was 27.2% to 34.5% (72.24 – 85.77 μg per day). This sug­gests that the amount of bro­ma­di­olone retained in the tis­sue of the rats was higher than that of chloropha­ci­none. Thus, barn owls face a greater poten­tial for sec­ondary poi­son­ing from bro­ma­di­olone rather than chloropha­ci­none as can be deduced from this study

The Developmental Transcriptome of Bagworm, Metisa plana (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) and Insights into Chitin Biosynthesis Genes

Bagworm, Metisa plana (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) is a ubiquitous insect pest in the oil palm plantations. M. plana infestation could reduce the oil palm productivity by 40% if it remains untreated over two consecutive years. Despite the urgency to tackle this issue, the genome and transcriptome of M. plana have not yet been fully elucidated. Here, we report a comprehensive transcriptome dataset from four different developmental stages of M. plana, comprising of egg, third instar larva, pupa and female adult. The de novo transcriptome assembly of the raw data had produced a total of 193,686 transcripts, which were then annotated against UniProt, NCBI non-redundant (NR) database, Gene Ontology, Cluster of Orthologous Group, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases. From this, 46,534 transcripts were annotated and mapped to 146 known metabolic or signalling KEGG pathways. The paper further identified 41 differentially expressed transcripts encoding seven genes in the chitin biosynthesis pathways, and their expressions across each developmental stage were further analysed. The genetic diversity of M. plana was profiled whereby there were 21,516 microsatellite sequences and 379,895 SNPs loci found in the transcriptome of M. plana. These datasets add valuable transcriptomic resources for further study of developmental gene expression, transcriptional regulations and functional gene activities involved in the development of M. plana. Identification of regulatory genes in the chitin biosynthesis pathway may also help in developing an RNAi-mediated pest control management by targeting certain pathways, and functional studies of the genes in M. plana

Evaluation of Bacillus thuringiensis and flubendiamide for controlling Metisa plana via aerial spraying in oil palm plantation

Bagworm, Metisa plana (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) is one of the most serious and critical pests on oil palm. Aerial spraying is a treatment method that is used to control infestation especially in the large outbreak areas. Flubendiamide and Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk) as potential environmentally friendly pesticide were chosen for the study based. Aerial spraying with aircraft of both pesticide were carried out at an oil palm plantation. Four plots: A, B, C and D were chosen; each plot measuring 20ha. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effective spray volume for Flubendiamide and to determine cost-effectiveness between Flubendiamide and B. thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk). Both Flubendiamide spray volume of 30 and 50 liters ha-1 successfully reduced 100% the population from 196 bagworm per frond (BPF) to 0 BPF at 68 days after treatment (DAT) for 30 liters ha-1 and from 266 BPF to 0 BPF at 68 DAT for 50 liters ha-1. Application at 30 liters ha-1 of Flubendiamide were proven cost effective according to the cost benefit ratio (BCR). However, 50 liters ha-1 of Btk showed slight reduction in first treatment but increased the population to 195% from 99 BPF to 294 BPF at 68 DAT. Flubendiamide spray was proven to be more cost effective than Btk according to cost benefit ratio (BCR). Therefore, it is recommended for the management to use Flubendiamide with aerial spraying method for successive control of bagworm population below the economic threshold level (ETL)