Bait aggregation to reduce cost and toxin use in aerial 1080 baiting of small mammal pests in New Zealand

BACKGROUND: The metabolic toxin sodium fluoroacetate (‘compound 1080’) is widely used for controlling introduced mammalian pests in New Zealand. For large-scale operations, 1080 is distributed aerially in bait to kill brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula Kerr) and ship rats (Rattus rattus L.). While usually successful in reducing pest populations by > 80%, widespread distribution of toxic bait is relatively expensive and raises concerns from some members of the public. Here, trials with spatial aggregation of baits in forested habitats were conducted to determine whether this can reduce toxin usage while maintaining operational efficacy. RESULTS: When 1080 baits were aggregated into clusters (by hand sowing) or into strips (by precision aerial deployment), indices of possum relative abundance were reduced by 92–100%, compared with 73–100% reductions using conventional aerial broadcasting, while all methods reduced relative abundance indices of rats by 88% or greater. Radio tracking indicated a kill rate of > 90% against possums, regardless of bait distribution method. CONCLUSIONS: Simply by modifying bait distribution patterns, spatial aggregation can be used to maintain the high encounter rate of pests with 1080 bait that is necessary for operational efficacy, while reducing current toxin usage by up to 80%. Aggregated bait delivery could have relevance for other mammalian pest control scenarios internationally. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Development and comparative test of squid liver artificial bait for tuna longline

ABSTRACT:   We have been developing an artificial bait for longline tuna fishing using the liver of the Japanese common squid Todarodes pacificus , a waste product of the squid fisheries industry, as the primary component. Three control test operations using the artificial bait and natural squid were conducted during January 1998, 1999 and 2000. During these operations, we compared the angling performance of the artificial bait with that of the natural squid. Some tuna was caught using the artificial bait; however, the hooking ratio for the artificial bait was less than that for the natural baits. Despite this, there was no significant difference between the hooking ratio by artificial bait and natural squid. In addition, species selectivity in the by-catch, a characteristic particular to this artificial bait, was observed. In the present paper, we discuss the hooking ratio and the reduction in by-catch of the artificial bait compared with natural bait.     

Efficacy of Beauveria bassiana against the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: Combining biological control and chemical control could be used for controlling red imported fire ant (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta, more effectively. Beauveria bassiana F256, a local strain from Taiwan, was evaluated for its efficacy in the control of S. invicta under both laboratory and field conditions. RESULTS: The efficacies of different doses of B. bassiana (Bb) using direct application and bait formulation methods were compared. The number of RIFA workers killed by the direct application of Bb or by bait were significantly higher than those of the control, with different rates of efficacy under laboratory conditions. Under field conditions, the direct application of Bb into RIFA mounds was more efficient in inactivating the mounds than the bait application. CONCLUSION: It was shown that B. bassiana is able to control S. invicta under both laboratory and field conditions and can be used as a biocontrol agent against RIFA in Taiwan. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

精养鱼种池理化特点生物相及其与鱼产量关系的研究 Ⅰ、水化学和初级生产力

笔者1989年5～9月用颗粒饵料培育大规格鲤鱼种的鱼池的理化特点,初级生产力及其对鱼产量影响进行了初步研究。该鱼池主要离子含量较高,平均含量达1.73 g/l;pH偏碱性,较稳定,硬度高,碱度较高;有效氮含量平均为2.46 mg/l,其中铵氮占39.2％,亚硝酸态氮占3.75％,硝酸态氮占57.5％,溶解性磷酸盐平均含量为0.095mg/l,N/P为13～144,平均为43。溶解氧平均为7.5mg/l。磷酸盐的含量没有构成初级生产力的限制因子,5～9月其平均水柱月初级毛产氧量为14.18 g/m~2·d,水柱毛产氧量大于水柱耗氧量。平均透明度为20cm,平均补偿深度为84cm,为前者的4.2倍,池水氧气的消耗情况是,池鱼约占25.26％,水呼吸约占57.86％,底质约占11.78％。氧气来源约77.81％靠光合作用,22.19％靠空气溶解和水源补给。以上条件均对鱼产量产生很大影响,鱼产量平均为6507.1 kg/ha,饵料系数平均为1.31。     

基于改进YOLOv5s的河蟹与饵料检测方法

针对目前在水下复杂环境中池塘养殖河蟹与饵料的检测算法存在检测精度低、速度慢等问题,该研究提出了基于改进YOLOv5s（you only look once version 5 small）的河蟹与饵料检测方法。首先,采用轻量化卷积Ghost替换普通卷积,同时利用GhostBottleneck结构替换原主干网络中的残差结构快速提取网络特征,减少模型计算量,满足安卓端的应用要求。其次,为了弥补因网络参数量减少造成网络检测精度稍有降低的问题,借鉴BiFPN（bidirectional feature pyramid network）的思想改进原始YOLOv5s的双向融合骨干网络,以较低的计算成本提高网络对小目标的检测精度。此外,为了帮助网络进一步更好地识别目标,加入了CA（coordinate attention）注意力机制,使得图像中感兴趣的区域能够更准确地被捕获。试验结果表明：该研究改进模型平均精度均值为96.9%,计算量为8.5GFLOPs,与当前主流的单阶段有锚框目标检测算法SSD（single shot multibox detector）和YOLOv3相比,具有更高的检测精度以及更少的计算量。相比于原始YOLOv5s模型,本文改进模型平均精度均值提高了2.2个百分点,计算量和模型内存都降低了40%以上。最后,将改进前后的模型部署到安卓设备上测试。测试结果表明：改进后模型的平均检测速度为148ms/帧,相较于原始模型检测速度提高了20.9%,并且保持了较好的检测效果,平衡了安卓设备对模型检测精度以及速度的性能需求,能够为河蟹养殖投饵量的精准确定提供参考。     

菜地和稻田土壤真菌的分离方法比较

比较了虎红琼脂培养基、酸性PDA培养基、PDA培养基和植物组织诱集法对菜地和稻田土壤真菌的分离效果.结果表明,虎红琼脂培养基和酸性PDA培养基对土壤真菌的分离效果显著优于PDA培养基（α=0.05）.分离时土壤悬浮液以10^-1和10^-2稀释度最佳.采用植物组织诱集法可分离到土壤中的腐霉菌.     

A Lycaenid Butterfly (Anthene amarah Guerin) selects unseasonal young acacia shoots for oviposition

Felling experiments on the indigenous thorn tree Acacia tortilis in the northern Transvaal revealed that Anthene amarah butterflies oviposit on unseasonal new coppice shoots. Felling resembles damage caused by large browsing mammals in that it modifies the normal phenological rhythms of trees, and in this way apparently extends the period during which high quality food is available to herbivorous insects such as A. amarah.     

The effect of choice of targeted market,production scale,and land tenure on the economics of integrated tilapia-prawn production

Integrated aquaculture systems have the potential to enhance the environmental sustainability of aquaculture production, if economically feasible. Data from integrated tilapia-prawn production trials were used to develop economic-engineering enterprise budgets for ponds with and without substrate that targeted two different types of markets, using two production scales and two forms of land tenure. Inclusion of substrate increased investment and fixed costs and decreased net returns. Recreational markets (live tilapia for fee fishing and live prawns as bait) were profitable, but sales to supermarkets were not. Production scale and land tenure affected economic outcomes with increased pond size and leasing ponds demonstrating greater profitability. Results provide evidence of the need to carefully evaluate economic trade-offs associated with varying commercial-scale applications to increase the likelihood of adoption of new technologies.     

橡胶树蔗糖转运蛋白基因SOS酵母双杂交体系的诱饵载体构建及自激活检测

为了筛选巴西橡胶树蔗糖转运蛋白（HbSUT）的互作蛋白质,构建了以SOS恢复系统为原理的胞质酵母双杂交系统的6个HbSUT基因的诱饵载体,并进行了自激活检测。通过PCR技术从携带HbSUT基因的质粒中获得预期的基因编码序列,将目标片段定向插入诱饵载体pSOS的SalⅠ及NotⅠ酶切位点之间,酶切和测序结果表明,获得了序列和读框正确的6个HbSUT基因的诱饵载体pSOS-SUTs,进一步导入酵母温度敏感酵母cdc25H菌株中,检测其表达产物对酵母SOS恢复系统Ras信号通路的激活作用,除pSOS-SUT5外,其他5个诱饵载体对酵母菌株均无激活作用,因而适合于进行后续互作蛋白质筛选研究。