Farmers Fight Mouse Plague with Stronger Bait

0:00Farmers in Western Australia's northern grainboe are facing the worst mouse plague ever, with about 8,000 mice packed into every hectare of. Cropland. They're pushing hard for an emergency permit to make mouse bait with double the usual poison. 50 grams of zinc phosphide per kilogram, instead of the standard 25. But the Australian pesticides and veterinary medicines authority, or APVMA, has shattered down so far, saying they need rock-solid scientific proof. Before allowing it, these swarms are hitting paddocks and roads at night, and the current bait just isn't cutting it. Mice often need two bites to go down. One big farmer near Yuna, running 20,000 hectares, says even aerial spraying can't keep up, and the weaker dose drags out the suffering. Frustration is boiling over among growers and industry groups like grain producers Australia. They're calling it a welfare issue for the mice, plus a nightmare for everyone dead rodents, thinking of homes, sheds, and shops and country towns.

1:02Early estimates put potential crop damage at $50 million if this drags on. CSIRO researchers back the stronger bait with four studies showing its way more effective and no big jump in risks to bird so far. But APVMA calls the data not up to regulatory standards. Interestingly, they greenlit emergency permits for the same stuff back in 2021. Now, groups are racing to collect fresh evidence from farmers nationwide, hoping to tip the scales for those permits. With mouse numbers climbing, times ticking could be a game changer if they pull it off before harvest hits hard. That's your Sydney News Today update. AI powered and always on.