Lassa Fever
James H. S. Gear in CRC Handbook of Viral and Rickettsial Hemorrhagic Fevers, 2019
As the chief mechanism of transmission to humans involves contamination of food with virus-containing urine from the wild rodent reservoir, preventive measures must include both rodent control and protection of stored foods. Rodent control may generally be achieved by trapping or poisoning. Great care must be exercised when handling trapped animals which may have urinated in fright and, in the process, contaminated the traps with Lassa virus. In a case-control study it was shown that a 2- to 3-fold reduction of rodents obtained by trapping was insufficient to significantly reduce the Lassa seroconversion rate of the people in the houses where trapping had been done.31 The use of rodenticides may be preferred but is associated with danger to children and domestic animals if not practiced with care.
Pesticides
David J. George in Poisons, 2017
Metal phosphide compounds are commonly used by licensed exterminators. These compounds react with moisture and produce phosphine gas, which is extremely toxic. Phosphine blocks many cellular processes and causes multisystem organ failure leading to death. Other commercially available rodenticides act as either neurotoxins, cardiotoxins, or disrupt critical metabolic processes. Rodenticides are rather nonspecific and can poison birds and other wildlife, pets, and humans. Older rodenticides containing discontinued and unlicensed substances can still be found in barns, attics, and other neglected storage areas. Unapproved pesticide products can also be imported illegally by individuals who obtain them from friends or relatives living outside the United States.
Rodenticides
Frank A. Barile in Barile’s Clinical Toxicology, 2019
Rodenticides are a diverse group of chemically and structurally unrelated compounds. Unlike the herbicides and insecticides, whose toxicity is uniformly categorized according to their chemical classification, the rodenticides are functionally organized according to their general category and their toxicity in rodents (LD50), as outlined in Table 30.1. In addition, the substances differ in their mechanisms of action, clinical toxicity, effective doses, structural formulas, sources, and other uses.
Childhood accidental poisoning in western Iraq: Pattern and risk factors
Published in Alexandria Journal of Medicine, 2018
Zaid R. Al-Ani, Sahar J. Al-Hiali, Riyadh H. Al-Janabi
Three cases of rodenticide poisoning were recorded in this study. Some rodenticides are sold as pinkish particles like mashed meat containing warfarin that kills the rats by causing internal bleeding. Poisoning occurs when the young child accidentally ingest the substance. In this study, one of the three rodenticide poisoning cases developed hematuria in the hospital and improved after receiving a parenteral vitamin K as an antidote. The warfarin-containing rodenticides composed only 4.2% of the rodenticide poisoning cases that were referred to the PCC from Baghdad in 2013 while that containing Zinc Phosphide composed about 42% of these referred cases. Zinc phosphide is a dark gray powder mixed with food to form a bait or sold as a ready bait paste to be used as a rodenticide. It kills the rodents by the production of the highly toxic phosphine gas in the stomach through its acidic medium. AP in children or suicide poisoning in adults leads to the absorption of the phosphine gas to the blood circulation. No antidote is available and the mortality may reach 37–100%.30
An outbreak of severe coagulopathy in northern Israel among users of illicit synthetic cannabinoids adulterated with brodifacoum
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2023
Yael Lurie, Yona Nadir, Ron Hoffman, Asaf Miller, Edna Efrati, Gil Ring, Dana Sonenfeld, Nitai Bar, Hisam Zaidani, Alexander Strizevsky, Mahdi Asali, Ophir Lavon, Daniel Kurnik
We report a large outbreak of severe coagulopathy among users of synthetic cannabinoids adulterated with brodifacoum. Brodifacoum is a long-acting anticoagulant rodenticide that, similarly to the therapeutic oral anticoagulant warfarin, inhibits vitamin K-2,3 epoxide reductase, thus reducing the formation of reduced vitamin K, a cofactor in the γ-carboxylation or post-synthetic modification of clotting factors II, VII, IX and X. Like all long-acting anticoagulant rodenticides, brodifacoum is highly lipophilic, has a long biological half-life (16 to 62 days) [13], and has an approximately 15-fold greater potency than warfarin (IC50 = 0.15 μM for rat microsomal vitamin K-2,3 epoxide reductase, compared to 2.2 μM for warfarin) [14]. Long-acting anticoagulant rodenticides are widely used in agricultural and urban rodent control and encountered in the medical context, mainly after unsupervised ingestion by young children or intentional ingestions by adults [15,16]. Long-acting anticoagulant rodenticides are well absorbed via the gastrointestinal tract, but both animal studies and human case reports provide evidence for effective absorption through the respiratory tract [17–19], explaining the systemic exposure in our patients, almost all of whom were exposed by inhalation.
An analytical strategy for the identification of carbamates, toxic alkaloids, phenobarbital and warfarin in stomach contents from suspected poisoned animals by thin-layer chromatography/ultraviolet detection
Published in Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods, 2019
André Valle de Bairros, Diulia Dias, André Bezerra, Roger Wagner, Bruna Klein, Glaucia Kommers, Eliza Stefanon, Ana Miguel Pego
Other toxic agents such as alkaloids from Nux vomica, mainly strychnine and brucine (STY and BRU), are considered classic rodenticides. These alkaloids act as antagonists of the glycine receptor, increasing glycine levels in the synaptic cleft and promoting large muscle contractions and violent convulsions. Death occurs by asphyxiation due to paralysis of central nervous system respiration control and/or exhaustive seizure (Melo and Silva Junior 2005; Cowan and Blakley 2015). Methomyl (MET) and carbofuran (CAR) are pesticides from the carbamate class, considered cholinesterase enzyme inhibitors and responsible for the increase in acetylcholine levels in muscarinic and nicotinic receptors. As a consequence, sweating, salivation and difficulty breathing are some of toxic effects that can progress to respiratory failure and even death (Eddleston and Konickx 2014; Gonçalves et al. 2017). In order to perform toxicological analysis on these xenobiotics, chromatographic methods are commonly used, such as thin-layer chromatography (TLC) (Stahr et al. 1981; Rengel and Friedrich 1993; Cazenave et al. 2005; Xavier et al. 2007; Kuwayama et al. 2012).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Anticoagulant
- Coagulation Factor Vii
- Vitamin K
- Vomiting
- Capillary
- Thrombin
- Mouse
- Secondary Poisoning
- 4-Hydroxycoumarins
- 1,3-Indandione