ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 8, 2009

EPA OKAYS PHEASANT REPELLENT FOR CORN GROWERS

BISMARCK – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a Section 18 exemption for Avipel® Liquid Corn Seed Treatment and Avipel® Dry Powder Corn Seed Treatment, allowing North Dakota corn producers to use the products to repel ring-necked pheasants from their fields.

Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said the exemption is needed to reduce significant economic loss caused by pheasants, and that the situation meets EPA’s criteria of being an urgent and non-routine situation.

“Thanks to a series of mild winters and increasing habitat from the Conservation Reserve Program, pheasant populations have grown dramatically in North Dakota over the past ten years,” Goehring said. “According to survey data from the 2008 growing season, some growers experienced total losses of corn stands.”

Anthraquinone, the active ingredient in Avipel, is a naturally occurring, organic chemical that causes an unpleasant, but harmless reaction in birds that eat treated seeds. The birds learn to avoid treated seeds and to seek other food.

The exemption allows users to apply the liquid seed treatment at a rate of one gallon product per 980 pounds of seed. The dry product may be applied at a rate of 3.5 ounces of product per 42 pounds of seed.

Users must follow all applicable directions, restrictions and precautions on the Section 18 labeling. Treated seed must be dyed to prevent use as food, feed or oil processing.

The complete EPA-approved use instructions are available on NDDA’s website at www.agdepartment.com/Programs/Plant/Section18Exemptions.html.

The exemption, which allows treatment for seed needed to plant 1.25 million acres, expires April 7, 2010. All unused seed treatment must be returned to the distributor or manufacturer or disposed of in accordance with federal regulations.

Avipel is manufactured by Arkion Life Sciences LLC, New Castle, DE, which supported the exemption request.

In 2008, North Dakota ranked 12th in the U.S. in production of corn for grain.

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MEDIA: For more information, please call Ted Quanrud at (701) 328-2233 or tquanrud@nd.gov or Patrice Lahlum at (701) 239-7210 or plahlum@nd.gov.