Modern rodenticides and non-target species

Abstract

It is generally recognized that environmental pollution with agrotechnical substances is the major problem for the conservation of biological diversity and human food security. However, their use cannot be completely excluded. Of particular importance are modern rodenticides, i.e. superwarfarins, designed to reduce the numbers of rodents damaging agriculture, i.e. to destroy animals. However, these poisons are highly toxic and are passed up the food chains. Besides, it is impossible to draw a line between agrocenoses in their classical sense and the natural or slightly modified environment. The absence of clear physical boundaries of agrocenoses means that the processes occurring therein affect the biological diversity of adjacent territories, which are considered natural. Animals use both fields and the spaces adjacent to them. In addition, there is a water exchange between cultivated fields and the adjacent natural areas and reservoirs. Modern changes in the structure of agrocenoses increase the segment of fields which rodenticides are used on. The plowing of ravines, riversides and other inconvenient lands (due to an improved quality of equipment) facilitates the ingress of rodenticides into water bodies. Data on the consequences of the use of superwarfarins in some anthropogenic biocenoses of the southern regions of the Russian Federation are presented. Facts of mass destruction of consumers of the 1st and 2nd order (the so-called non-target species), directly related to rodenticid use, are given. Complex pathomorphological and toxicological studies of animals died in nature were carried out for the first time in the Russian Federation. The presence of bromadiolone in tissue samples was confirmed by chemical analysis, and the descriptions of autopsies of dead birds have been processed. Recommendations on the specific features for the collecting and storage of materials sent for research have been prepared.