Anticoagulant Rodenticide Poisoning in Wild Animals

Year 2021, Volume: 32 Issue: 1, 89 - 98, 30.06.2021

Orhan Tokur , Abdurrahman Aksoy

https://doi.org/10.35864/evmd.883952

Abstract

Anticoagulant rodenticides are often used in rodent control. Pets such as cats, dogs or birds such as sparrows and pigeons can be poisoned accidentally by consuming rodenticide bait which is regarded as primary poisoning. Wild animals such as owls, foxes, jackals, on the other hand, usually hunt rodents and have no interest in baits. When a rodent consumes an anticoagulant rodenticide bait, it exhibits abnormal behaviours such as movement disorders, reduced flight response, and usually dies within a few days. Thus, the poisoned rodents can easily be hunted by the predators. However, the rodenticides that already have accumulated in the liver of the rodent may also poison the predator which is referred to as secondary poisoning. Secondary poisoning occurs more frequently, especially where human settlements and wildlife are intersecting. In this review, we evaluated the published data of rodenticide poisoning in animals and showed the risks of anticoagulant rodenticides, particularly in the case of wildlife. Many studies have reported both primary and secondary rodenticide poisoning in both domestic and wild animal species in many parts of Europe, America, Australia. There is, however, no report on rodenticide poisoning in wild animals in Turkey.

Keywords

Anticoagulant rodenticides, wild animals, poisoning

Yaban Hayvanlarında Antikoagülan Rodentisitler ile Zehirlenmeler

Abstract

Antikoagülan rodentisitler kemirici mücadelesinde sık kullanılmaktadırlar. Tuzak yem formunda uygulanan bu maddeleri kedi, köpek gibi evcil hayvanlar ya da serçe, güvercin gibi kuşlar kazara tüketerek zehirlenebilirler. Bu durum primer (birincil) zehirlenme olarak isimlendirilir. Baykuş, tilki, çakal gibi avcı yaban hayvanları ise genellikle kemiricileri avlayarak beslenir ve tuzak yemlere ilgi göstermezler. Tuzak yemi tüketen kemiriciler anormal davranışlar sergiler; kaçış dürtüsü ve hareket kabiliyeti azalarak genellikle birkaç gün içerisinde ölürler. Böylece avcı hayvanlar tarafından kolaylıkla yakalanabilirler. Ancak kemiricinin karaciğerinde biriken antikoagülan rodentisitler avcı canlıyı da etkileyerek zehirlenmesine sebep olabilmektedir. Bu durum ise sekonder (ikincil) zehirlenme olarak isimlendirilir. Bu derlemede, hayvanlarda antikoagülan rodentisit zehirlenmeleri ile ilgili literatürde bildirilmiş veriler değerlendirilerek antikoagülan rodentisit kullanımından kaynaklanabilecek risk faktörlerini, özellikle yaban hayatı açısından aktarmak amaçlanmıştır. Değerlendirilen birçok çalışmada, Amerika, Avrupa ve Avustralya’nın çeşitli bölgelerinde yaşayan evcil ve yaban hayvanlarında hem primer hem de sekonder antikoagülan rodentisit zehirlenmesi bildirilmiş; ülkemizde ise yaban hayvanlarında antikoagülan rodentisit zehirlenmelerinin araştırıldığı herhangi bir çalışmaya rastlanmamıştır.

Keywords

Antikoagülan Rodentisitler, Yaban hayvanları, zehirlenme

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