Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Anticoagulant rodenticides act at the hepatic level where they are more or less fixed according to their lipophilic nature. The studies on kinetics and metabolism carried out with no toxic doses are useful to know how products act but do not allow to anticipate the toxicity risks for nontarget species, because of low residual contents. These risks can only be assessed after the administration of toxic doses taking into account the residue levels. The use of half-life to express the results is not sufficiently accurate and may lead to wrong conclusions. The studies involving the residue and secondary toxicity levels are more accurate for assessing the risks. Some examples are given in particular for bromadiolone.