Olfactory Component Assessment in Rodenticide Baits and Its Attractiveness to Grey Rats

Introduction. Increasing bait consumption is a highly relevant issue in pest control practice. Adding an odorant to bait is one of the methods to improve the appeal of roddenticide to rodents and consequently enhance its consumption.

Materials and methods. A research was carried out on the influence of various artificial fragrances (imitating plant and animal products) on ingestibility of grain rodenticide bait by grey rats (Rattus norvegicus Berk.) of either sex under free behaviour conditions in group maintenance.

Results. Adding odourants simulating animal products to the group keeping conditions with free access to food and water had a more significant effect on feed intake, with the synthetic odorant ‘bacon’ showing the most prominent effect. Efficiency from the flavouring additives imitating plant products was only observed at low concentrations of odorant in the nutritional basis (0.01% and 0.1%).

Conclusion. Odorants simulating animal products had the most evident effect. Addition of flavorings imitating plant products had an effect only at low concentrations in the nutritional base.

Limitations of the study. The behavioral reactions of rodents to the bait received have been studied. The results of the study are of interest to specialists involved in disinfection activities in the field of rodent control.

Ethics approval. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Disinfectology Institute of Federal Scientific Center of Hygiene named after F.F. Erisman (No. 2¹, 06.05.2025), conducted in accordance with the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes (ETS N 123), the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.

Contribution:
Khirazova E.E. — data processing, writing the text;
Gevorkyan I.S. — collection of materials;
Savinkova I.G. — editing;
Komarov V.Yu. — concept and design of the study, editing.
All co-authors — approval of the final version of the article, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article.

Funding. This study was not supported by any external sources of funding.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no obvious or potential conflicts of interest in connection with the publication of this article.

Received: 07.07.2025 / Accepted: 20.08.2025 / Published: 10.09.2025

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