Australian Wildlife Health Network

Forum : Diseases and disease agents

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Topic:Sodium fluroacetate (1080)
Name:L Haynes	Date:
Email:lhaynes@zoo.nsw.gov.au	Phone:

Name	Date Of Event	Posted	Details
Brendan Cowled		29/11/2007	PART A. I found the 1080 paper interesting. I probably agree with large chunks of it. However..... I had several issues with the accuracy of the interpretation of some of the issues examined in the paper. For example, the author cited old pen trials to determine times to death in feral pigs following 1080 ingestion, rather than more recent field studies where death was much quicker (and hence more humane). This makes a big difference, up to 80 hours to death in pens but less than 20% of this time during field trials.
Brendan Cowled		29/11/2007	PART B. I also would rather have seen an acknowledgement that for a variety of social, biodiversity, economic and disease control reasons some sort of poison baiting is essential (often no other control tools are effective). Therefore some discussion about the humaneness of 1080 relative to other toxins would have been good. i.e. 1080 is the best of an imperfect bunch of toxins, therefore we need to retain it till something else that is practical is available. Western shield is an excellent example of the need for 1080 in Australia. There are a number of endemic critical weight range species in south western Australia that have been brought back from the brink of extinction through the use of 1080 baiting during western shield. This is due to the high tolerance of these species to 1080 relative to introduced predators (i.e. cats and foxes). Without the continued use of 1080 baiting, these unique species may become extinct.
Brendan Cowled		29/11/2007	PART C. I believe it comes down to what takes precedence, conservation of native species or the welfare of vertebrate pests? Some groups have tried to satisfy both positions, by stating that lethal control of vertebrate pests is acceptable provided that whatever technique used is humane. However, trying to satisfy both objectives can often be difficult. Often there are no effective/practical alternatives that are perfectly humane. Therefore, do we allow extinctions of native species because 1080 is considered not humane?
L Haynes		22/11/2007	A media release (http://www.rspca.org.au/mediareleases/MRShow.asp? ID=131) from RSPCA Australia states their opposition to the use of poisons that cause suffering and/or baiting strategies that are nontarget-specific. Based on a recent article (below), RSPCA Australia considers the effect of 1080 on animals is not humane. The article referred to is: Sherley, M. 2007. Is sodium fluoroacetate (1080) a humane poison? Animal Welfare 16: 449-458.
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