ABSTRACT
Prior to 1950 all rodenticides were nonanticoagulants, most of them quick-acting ones, but after the introduction of warfarin and the other anticoagulants their importance was very much reduced. Alpha-chloralose is a narcotic drug retarding metabolic processes and causing fatal body-heat loss in small-sized mammals and birds at low environmental temperatures. Symptoms of poisoning occur within an hour after intake. Alpha-chlorohydrin is primarily a chemosterilant, but a high proportion of the rodent population is killed through glomerulonephritis and renal insufficiency. Bromethalin is the most recently developed nonanticoagulant rodenticide. It works by uncoupling oxidative phosphorylation in the mitochondria in the central nervous system leading to diminished membrane transport and increased cerebrospinal fluid pressure. The two forms of calciferol are equally toxic to most mammals, whereas cholecalciferol is considered to be significantly more potent to birds. All mammals are susceptible to crimidin. Birds are relatively tolerant but cases of primary and secondary poisoning of birds have been encountered in large-scale operations.
