COMPARARTIVE STUDIES BETWEEN ZINC PHOSPHIDE AND GOLDEN AHOWER CRUDE SEEDS PLANT EXTRACT AS A RODENTICIDE UNDER LABORATORY AND FIELD CONDITIONS

The rodenticidal effect of golden shower crude seeds extract, cassia fistula was studied comparatively with zinc phosphide under laboratory and field conditions of sharkia. governorate. the laboratory results showed that in both non-choice and free - choice feeding tests a bait containing 1% either zinc phosphide or golden shower ethanolic extract gave 100% mortality for albino rat with shorter time to death for zinc phosphide treatment. golden shower ethanolic extract bait was more palatable than zinc phosphide with 56.7 and 34.1% bait acceptance, respectively. oral administration of sub-leathal dose (¼ ld_50 ) of each compound induced a noticeable dysfunction in aspartate aminotransferase (ast), alanine aminotransferase (alt) enzymes and total protein as they increased in plasma at 24 and 48 hours after treatment indicating ahepatic damage. aprolongation of the prothrombin time (pt) had occurred following administration of golden shower ethanolic extract indicating disorders in blood coagulation mechanism but no effect on (pt) was observed with zinc phosphide treatment. under the field conditions, zinc phosphide caused 69.3% population reduction, while ethanol golden shower extract reduced 65.5%of black rat, rattus rattus rattus population, while the water extract gave the lowest value.(9.7%).