Accumulation of anticoagulant rodenticides in a non-target insectivore, the European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)

Dowding, Claire V.; Shore, Richard F.; Worgan, Andrew; Baker, Philip J.; Harris, Stephen

Accumulation of anticoagulant rodenticides in a non-target insectivore, the European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)

2010

Dowding, Claire V. | Shore, Richard F. | Worgan, Andrew | Baker, Philip J. | Harris, Stephen

Studies on exposure of non-targets to anticoagulant rodenticides have largely focussed on predatory birds and mammals; insectivores have rarely been studied. We investigated the exposure of 120 European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) from throughout Britain to first- and second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (FGARs and SGARs) using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection (HPLC) and liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS). The proportion of hedgehogs with liver SGAR concentrations detected by HPLC was 3–13% per compound, 23% overall. LCMS identified much higher prevalence for difenacoum and bromadiolone, mainly because of greater ability to detect low-level contamination. The overall proportion of hedgehogs with LCMS-detected residues was 57.5% (SGARs alone) and 66.7% (FGARs and SGARs combined); 27 (22.5%) hedgehogs contained >1 rodenticide. Exposure of insectivores and predators to anticoagulant rodenticides appears to be similar. The greater sensitivity of LCMS suggests that hitherto exposure of non-targets is likely to have been under-estimated using HPLC techniques. Exposure of insectivorous hedgehogs to anticoagulant rodenticides in Britain is similar to predatory birds and mammals that specialise in eating small mammals, and hitherto exposure levels have been under-estimated using HPLC techniques.

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