Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Centre for Conservation Science, 10 Park Quadrant, Glasgow, G36BS, Scotland, UK.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Bushmill Cottage, Gruinart, Bridgend Isle of Islay, Argyll, PA44 7PR, Scotland, UK.
Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 13;9(1):4315. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40800-6.
Macrocyclic lactone treatments for livestock can have detrimental effects on the arthropod populations in livestock faeces. For the last twenty years, avoidance of these products has been a standard recommendation on livestock farms that are managed for wildlife by the Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB). However, the continued decline in the populations of birds (in particular the red-billed chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) that are dependent on dung invertebrates on islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland prompted us to investigate the effects of livestock treatments that are commonly used on these islands. We conducted a replicated field plot study over two years to quantify the effects of livestock treatments containing copper, deltamethrin and triclabendazole on invertebrate density in pooled, artificial faecal pats on the island of Islay. We found that the density of arthropod larvae was significantly reduced by the triclabendazole and deltamethrin treatments in both years and by as much as 86% when the treatments were combined. Copper-containing boluses did not consistently affect abundance of arthropod larvae. These results suggest that veterinary treatment of livestock might contribute to a reduction in the food supply of chough.
大环内酯类药物治疗家畜可能对家畜粪便中的节肢动物种群产生不利影响。在过去的二十年中，为保护鸟类皇家学会（RSPB）管理的野生动物而管理的家畜养殖场一直避免使用这些产品。然而，栖息在内赫布里底群岛（苏格兰）岛屿上的以粪便无脊椎动物为食的鸟类（尤其是红嘴山鸦 Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax）数量持续下降，促使我们调查这些岛屿上常用的家畜处理方法的影响。我们进行了为期两年的复制现场试验研究，以量化含有铜、溴氰菊酯和三氯苯达唑的家畜处理对伊莱岛人工粪便堆中无脊椎动物密度的影响。我们发现，在两年中，三氯苯达唑和溴氰菊酯处理都显著降低了节肢动物幼虫的密度，而联合处理则降低了高达 86%。含铜丸剂并不总是影响节肢动物幼虫的丰度。这些结果表明，家畜的兽医治疗可能会导致红嘴山鸦食物供应减少。
