Skip to content
Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/toxicology

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Secondary poisoning


Secondary poisoning, or relay toxicity, is the poisoning that results when one organism comes into contact with or ingests another organism that has poison in its system. It typically occurs when a predator eats an animal, such as a mouse, rat, or insect, that has previously been poisoned by a commercial pesticide. If the level of toxicity in the prey animal is sufficiently high, it will harm the predator.

Mammals susceptible to secondary poisoning include humans, pets such as cats and dogs, as well as wild birds.

Pesticides

Various pesticides such as rodenticides may cause secondary poisoning. Some pesticides require multiple feedings spanning several days; this increases the time a target organism continues to move after ingestion, raising the risk of secondary poisoning of a predator. Most of slow-acting poisons for pests have cumulative effects and so can cause secondary poisoning and environment pollution.

PesticideTypeClassificationTargetOral ToxicityFeedingsSecondary Risk to MammalsSecondary Risk to Birds
WarfarinAnticoagulantHydroxycoumarinRodenticideModerateMultipleLowMinimal
BromadioloneAnticoagulantHydroxycoumarinRodenticideHighSingleModerateModerate
DifethialoneAnticoagulantHydroxycoumarinRodenticideHighSingleModerateHighest
BrodifacoumAnticoagulantHydroxycoumarinRodenticideHighestSingleHighestHighest
ChlorophacinoneAnticoagulantIndandioneRodenticideHighMultipleHighestMinimal
DiphacinoneAnticoagulantIndandioneRodenticideHighMultipleHighestModerate
BromethalinCNSotherRodenticideHighSingleLowLow
FluoroacetateMetabolismotherRodenticideHighestSingleHighHighest
Zinc phosphideotherotherRodenticideHighSingleMinimalLow

References

References

  1. [http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/rodenticides.html Rodenticides: Topic Fact Sheet], [[National Pesticide Information Center]]
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Secondary poisoning — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report