Experts are warning that a new breed of ‘super rodents’ in the UK could be a threat to the health of humans and other animals.
Yup, we didn’t have that on our 2023 bingo card either.
According to new research, it’s been revealed that 95% of house mice and 78% of rats have genes that allow them to tolerate these kinds of poisons, the Mirror reports.
They’ve slowly been becoming more and more resistant to poisons known as anticoagulant rodenticides over the past 20 years and pest expert Dr Alan Buckle has warned that the development may be a “threat to human and animal health.”
However, although it’s a major win for the mice and rats that will no longer be killed, continuing to lay down the poisons they’re immune to has some serious risks.
He told the news outlet: “Continued use of anticoagulant rodenticides against resistant rats or mice has serious downsides.
“These include incomplete control of the rodents, which leads to threats to human and animal health, a faster spread of surviving resistant rodents and long-term survival of resistant pests that carry poison residues that could then be eaten by predators.”
Source: Huffpost
