Evaluation of Wormwood Extract as a Bird Repellent Material and Antagonistic Agent against Feces Fungi

Abstract

Wormwood extract (Artemisia herba-alba) was evaluate as a repellent for the house sparrow, Passer domesticus under laboratory and field conditions. Fungal species belonging to P. domesticus feces and the antifungal activity of A. herba-alba extract against these fungi were also investigated. The results showed that the highest concentration (10%) has the highest repellent effect with wheat consumption mean of 0.16 g and 0.15 g compared to the control (plain wheat) after four days of the laboratory and field experiments. It is worthy to mention that the lowest concentration 2.5% exhibited a high repellent effect at the first day of experiment and subsequently lost its repellent ability. Among the pathogenic fungi in feces, Rhizopus stolonifer (the most predominant fungus 31.7%) followed by Fusarium subglutinans (23.8%), Paecilomyces variotii (12.4%), Cladosporium sphaerospermum (9.2%), Aspergillus flavus (7.3%), Aspergillus niger (6%) and Aspergillus versicolor (5%). Whereas Penicillium digitatum was the least isolated fungus with occurrence 4.6%. The susceptibility of these fungi to A. herba-alba extract increased by increasing the extract concentration. The highest concentration 10% showed the highest antifungal activity against A. versicolor with mean of inhibition zone 24.3 mm. However, the lowest concentration 2.5% of this extract did not show any antifungal effects against P. digitatum, R. stolonifer and A. niger. It is concluded that wormwood is a promising biologically safe bird repellent and effective antifungal agent against pathogenic fungi of bird feces. It is economical for use than synthetic pesticides that one expensive and relatively difficult to obtain.