Status: Terminated
Start date: 26 May 2016
Completion date: 31 March 2018
Project code: A-006
Species/Threats: European rabbits
This project is a legacy from initial research funded through the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre. The outcome of this project was to develop a highly portable carbon monoxide fumigator, as a new agricultural product for rabbit management.
In 2017, the project received funding, to undertake further assessments and field trials of the product. However, due to a series of insurmountable engineering challenges the project was terminated in early 2018 by mutual agreement. The device was unable to meet the minimum requirement of 6% CO (± 0.5%) (based on Gigliottti 2009) that could be sustained long enough to have an effect within burrows. The best result achieved to date is 4.2% CO for about 4 minutes.
Gigliotti F, Marks CA and Busana F (2009) Performance and humaneness of chloropicrin, phosphine and carbon monoxide as rabbit-warren fumigants Wildlife Research 36(4), 333-341.
