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

Dowding, C. V.; Shore, R. F.; Worgan, A.; Baker, Philip John; Harris, S.

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

2010

Dowding, C. V. | Shore, R. F. | Worgan, A. | Baker, Philip John | Harris, S.

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.

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