SECONDARY METALDEHYDE POISONING IN A BADGER (MELES MELES): EXPERIMENTAL STUDY WITH HELIX ASPERSA
Abstract
Metaldehyde is a compound with molluscicidal activity, widely used to control snails and slugs, although its inappropriate use can cause poisoning in other species, which are not the target ones. Faced with the death of a badger (Meles meles), the hypothesis of a possible secondary poisoning by ingestion of snails killed by the pesticide was considered. The objective of this work was to design an experimental study that would bring light on this question in the investigation of the cause of death of the badger.
Two experiments were designed with the species Helix aspersa, one to evaluate if the lethality is dose-dependent and another to evaluate the latency time from the molluscicidal treatment. In the dose experiment, five groups of snails were made, called "Superior", "High", "Medium", "Low" and "Lower", to which 400, 200, 133.3, 66.7 and 40 μg of metaldehyde per snail, respectively. After the experiment, the analysis of metaldehyde present per snail in each of the groups was as follows: "Higher" 137.4 μg, "High" 69.93 μg, "Medium" 47.24 μg, "Low" 31.72 μg and "Lower" 6.05 μg.
In the time test, 400 μg per snail was applied and the snails of each batch were sacrificed at the following times: T0, T60, T120 and 240 minutes. Those of the last batch died at 270 minutes (before sacrifice). The mean amounts per snail of each lot were the following: T0min 352.68 μg, T60min 277.41 μg, T120min 206.18 μg, T240min 164.8 μg and T270min 90.2 μg of metaldehyde.
After calculations based on the mean lethal dose of mice, it was estimated that, despite the fact that traces of metaldehyde were found in the organism of the snails, it is unlikely that secondary poisoning could occur in a badger due to the consumption of snails intoxicated with metaldehyde.
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