Secondary poisoning

Secondary poisoning refers to when a consumer gets intoxicated by eating another organism that has poison in its system.

It can affect humans (more commonly infants or young children), by getting in contact or ingest poisoned organisms (snails, mice,..).

It commonly happens when a predator eats prey (mice, rat, insects) that has previously been poisoned by rodenticides. The level of rodenticides in the prey might be higher than needed to kill the rodent, as it might have several feedings of the slow killing poison. Thus the level of rodenticides in the animal might be high enough to cause secondary poisoning in the larger predator animal.

Secondary poisoning can kill hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes, racoons, skunks, oppossums but also cats and dogs that are eating mice or rats. It also kills every year many songbirds catching insects poisoned by pesiticides. [ http://www.wildcarebayarea.org/site/PageServer?pagename=TakeAction_Rodenticide ]

The best way of preventing secondary poisoning is not to use rodenticides or pesticides in the start, but instead use natural forms of rodent control by eliminating food and sapce for the rodents or attract natural predators like raptors and owls.