Prevalence of anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning in France: human and animal data

Anticoagulant rodenticides have been used for over 50 years to control rodent populations. Since their first introduction, resistance developed in rodents, and second generation products, more active but also more toxic, have been marketed. These compounds are currently being reviewed under the European Regulation and the purpose of this work was to describe anticoagulant poisoning based on the retrospective data from French human and animal poison control centers. Cases from 2004 to 2007 were collected. Overall, the proportion of anticoagulant exposure as reported to Lyon’s Poison Control Center appeared very limited and mostly occurred in young children, with no or very limited clinical severity. Some cases also occurred after the intentional use of anticoagulants in adults. But circumstances of exposure are usually accidental in human beings (77%).

In animals, both domestic and wild species, anticoagulant exposure is more common and often accompanied by clinical signs. Among domestic species, dogs represent over 60% of the cases: in wildlife hares and rabbits account for almost 50% of the submitted cases, followed by predators and scavengers. The compounds involved are quite representative of the market share of anticoagulants, at least for human beings and domestic animals. In wildlife, bromadiolone and chlorophacinone were by far the most important products, being the only ones registered for field use (until 2011). There is no report of mortality in the human data, and less than 1% of all exposure cases in domestic animals.