Abstract
The widespread use of pesticides to control agricultural pests is a hot topic on the public scene of environmental health. Selective pest control for minimum environmental impact is a major goal of the environmental toxicology field, notably to avoid unintended poisoning in different organisms. Anticoagulant rodenticides cause abnormal blood coagulation process; they have been widely used to control rodents, allowing inadvertent primary and secondary exposure in domestic animals and non-target predatory wildlife species through direct ingestion of rodenticide-containing bait or by consumption of poisoned prey. To report toxic effect, the most common approach is the measurement of liver or plasma residues of anticoagulant rodenticides in dead or intoxicated animals showing clinical symptoms. However, one major challenge is that literature currently lacks a hepatic or plasma concentration threshold value for the differentiation of exposure from toxicity. Regarding the variation in pharmacology properties of anticoagulant rodenticides inter- and intra-species, the dose-response relationship must be defined for each species to prejudge the relative risk of poisoning. Beyond that, biomarkers are a key solution widely used for ecological risk assessment of contaminants. Since anticoagulant rodenticides (AR) have toxic effects at the biochemical level, biomarkers can serve as indicators of toxic exposure. In this sense, toxicological knowledge of anticoagulant rodenticides within organisms is an important tool for defining sensitive, specific, and suitable biomarkers. In this review, we provide an overview of the toxicodynamic and toxicokinetic parameters of anticoagulant rodenticides in different animal species. We examine different types of biomarkers used to characterize and differentiate the exposure and toxic effects of anticoagulant rodenticide, showing the strengths and weaknesses of the assays. Finally, we describe possible new biomarkers and highlight their capabilities.
Highlights
Pesticides are today the main means of pest control, making it possible to mitigate the economic, environmental and health consequences when pest population outbreak occurs [1]
Due to the diversity of non-target species, from small mammals to birds of prey, with for each species particular sensitivities or resistances to the pesticide in question, it is difficult to establish a level of exposure that may lead to the death
General Mechanism of Action of Anticoagulant Rodenticides Vitamin K in its hydroquinone form (VitKHQ) is a cofactor of Gamma-Glutamyl CarboXylase (GGCX) enzyme that performs a gamma-carboxylation of glutamate residue of some proteins called vitamin K dependent proteins (VKDP)
Summary
Pesticides are today the main means of pest control, making it possible to mitigate the economic, environmental and health consequences when pest population outbreak occurs [1]. Few studies deal with determination of parameters of poisoning in different species [14] and the way to treat non-target poisoned animals is still relatively obscure while many questions on this topic still need answers, such as how long does the treatment should last, what is the frequency and the quantity of vitamin K needed as a function of the species or even based on the race [15] From this lack arise many questions about the follow up of AR and their impact on environment, notably: how to attribute the cause of death of an AR exposed animal? The aim of this review is to outline existing and propose new biomarkers, in order to allow a better follow-up of anticoagulant exposure and intoxication
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