Finding Ways to Analyze the Effect of Insecticide on Bird Mortalities

Use of insecticides in agriculture is believed to be a major factor in regional declines in bird populations. A new study provides analyses that make objective assessments of the risk to birds at the local level anywhere in the world. The study is published in the latest Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Even though the toxicity of insecticides has decreased, bird deaths are still occurring in farmland areas where insecticides are used. Instead of reducing the amount of insecticides they use, farmers are replacing older, more toxic products with newer, less toxic ones.

"These changes have been a long time coming, but they are certainly welcome," said the study´s lead author, Pierre Mineau, who has written extensively about the effect of insecticides on birds.

The area in the U.S. where birds are most at risk is in the Southeast, which is heavily used by birds as a breeding, stopover and wintering area. Of particular concern is the use of toxic insecticides when winter migrants are present, given the high potential for large-scale mortalities.

Sprayed crops that cause the most potential for bird mortality are corn and cotton, followed distantly by alfalfa, wheat, potato, peanut, sugar beet, sorghum, tobacco and citrus.

To read the entire study, click here: http://www.allenpress.com/pdf/entc_25_523_1214_1222.pdfEnvironmental Toxicology and Chemistry is the monthly journal of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). For more information about the Society, visit http://www.setac.org.