Post-mortem findings of secondary brodifacoum poisoning in a kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

摘要

A male common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) was found dead in a field in April 2019 in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and was submitted to the Department for the Protection of Animals and the Environment of the cantonal police Zurich. Because the common kestrel is a protected species, the carcass was forwarded to the Department for Poultry and Rabbit Diseases, University of Zurich, for forensic examination. On necropsy, profuse internal haemorrhage without causal trauma was observed, leading to the suspicion of intoxication with an anticoagulant. Liver tissue samples were sent to the Institute of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy of the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany, for anticoagulant residue analysis, revealing an amount of 40.3 ng/g brodifacoum, a second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide. Information from the finding site did not give any evidence of wilful poisoning, thus secondary rodenticide poisoning through intoxicated prey was determined as the cause of death.