Radhakrishnan Sreejith
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, St. Mary's campus, Norfolk place, London W2 1PG, United Kingdom.
Former Assistant Forest Veterinary Officer, Periyar Tiger Reserve, Department of Forests and Wildlife, Kerala, India.
Eur J Wildl Res. 2018 Sep 22;64(58). doi: 10.1007/s10344-018-1218-6.
Wildlife poisoning is an important conservation threat for endangered species in India. There are no publications in the scientific literature that identify the specific poisons or chemicals involved in wildlife poisoning cases from the state of Kerala. In this report, all cases of wildlife mortality recorded between 2011 and 2013 at the office of the Assistant Forest Veterinary Officer, Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala were reviewed and cases where poisoning was considered as a differential diagnosis were identified. Specific poisons or chemicals were identified in three cases, while in a fourth, poisoning was determined to have occurred based on physical traces of the poison in gut contents. The poisons identified include carbofuran (a carbamate pesticide) in a bonnet macaque (), warfarin (a rodenticide) in a mortality event involving four wild boars (), endosulfan (an organochlorine pesticide) toxicity in a gaur () and imidacloprid (a neonicotinoid pesticide) toxicity in a wild adult Asian elephant (). This communication thus reports for the first time on the specific chemical compounds identified in wildlife poisoning cases from Kerala state and argues for greater regulation of the sale and use of such toxic compounds in India.
野生动物中毒是印度濒危物种面临的一项重要保护威胁。科学文献中没有出版物能确定喀拉拉邦野生动物中毒案件中涉及的具体毒物或化学物质。在本报告中，对2011年至2013年期间喀拉拉邦佩里亚尔老虎保护区助理森林兽医官办公室记录的所有野生动物死亡案例进行了审查，并确定了将中毒视为鉴别诊断的案例。在三个案例中确定了具体的毒物或化学物质，而在第四个案例中，根据肠道内容物中毒物的物理痕迹确定发生了中毒。确定的毒物包括一只冠毛猕猴体内的克百威（一种氨基甲酸酯类杀虫剂）、一起涉及四只野猪的死亡事件中的华法林（一种杀鼠剂）、一头印度野牛体内的硫丹（一种有机氯杀虫剂）毒性以及一头野生成年亚洲象体内的吡虫啉（一种新烟碱类杀虫剂）毒性。因此，本通讯首次报告了喀拉拉邦野生动物中毒案件中确定的具体化合物，并主张在印度加强对此类有毒化合物销售和使用的监管。
