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Voles and mustelids exposed to bromadiolone

27 décembre 2017

Stoat (Mustela erminea), a small mustelid specialized on voleVole populations produce agricultural damages in grasslands and sometimes are controlled with anticoagulant rodenticides (bromadiolone in France). This affects small mustelids (weasels Mustela nivalis, stoats Mustela erminea), specialist vole predators that are exposed to rodenticides. As part of the project VOLES, Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowships, Horizon 2020, European Commission) conducted in the ZAAJ, we investigated the bromadiolone exposure in vole and mustelid populations in 10 sites (Haut Doubs).

Four sites had high treatment frequency with bromadiolone and six had low treatment frequency in the period 2008-2015 (data collected by FREDON Franche-Comté).

Topcat traps used near vole tumuli to capture volesWe collected 42 scats of mustelids during spring and autumn 2016, before and after the main yearly treatment period. Moreover, we trapped 62 voles in agricultural parcels in summer 2016. Rodenticide analyses in the liver of trapped voles and mustelid scats were conducted using LC-MS/MS techniques (Vetagro-Sup).

Small mustelid scat collected at a study siteFour voles had bromadiolone, all trapped in a site frequently treated. The trapping occurred in a parcel with bromadiolone treatment in the previous month. We did not find rodenticides in the rest of sites. For mustelids, we found two scats with bromadiolone during spring 2016 in two different sites with high treatment frequency.

This study provides evidence of the exposure of mustelids at study sites with high treatment frequency against montane water vole.

"Montbéliardes" cows used for dairy products in Franche-Comté

Contact:
Javier Fernandez de Simon

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