Rodenticide levels soar in Buzzards as campaigners demand Welsh restrictions
Campaigners analysing government monitoring data say contamination has risen sharply and are asking Wales to tighten controls on second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides.
Campaigners are calling for tighter restrictions on rat poisons in Wales after their analysis of government monitoring data found sharply higher contamination in Common Buzzards tested during recent years.
Wildlife Poisoning Research UK examined results for 504 Buzzards from England and Wales tested between 2005 and 2024 through the UK Government's Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme. Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, known as SGARs, were detected in 425 birds, or 84.3% of the sample.
WPRUK divided the records into time periods and compared concentrations with a toxicity threshold of 0.04 milligrams per kilogram of fresh liver cited in its submission. It calculated that 34.3% of birds tested from 2005 to 2013 exceeded that level, rising to 60.7% during 2020 to 2024.
Among Buzzards in which SGARs were detected, the mean combined concentration rose from 0.0705 mg/kg in the earlier period to 0.2325 mg/kg in 2020 to 2024. That represents an increase of 230% in WPRUK's analysis.
The campaign group highlighted brodifacoum in particular. Its mean concentration rose from 0.0164 mg/kg to 0.1847 mg/kg between the same periods, an increase of 1,026%. WPRUK argues that the change may be connected to rules introduced in 2016 that permitted brodifacoum to be used in and around buildings rather than indoors only.
SGARs prevent blood from clotting. Raptors and other wildlife can be exposed when they eat poisoned rodents, including animals made sluggish and more conspicuous before death.
“The killing of our threatened wildlife by these poisons has to stop.”
Dr Edward Blane, Wildlife Poisoning Research UK
WPRUK has asked the Senedd's Climate Change, Environment, Sustainability and Rural Affairs Committee to press the Welsh Government for three changes: ending sales of amateur SGAR products, ending their amateur use and restricting professional SGAR use to internal areas where poisoned rodents are less likely to be taken by wildlife.
The figures are striking, but they come from a campaign submission rather than a newly peer-reviewed population study. Birds submitted to a government investigation scheme are not a random sample of all Buzzards, and exceeding a toxicity threshold does not establish that rodenticide exposure caused every bird's death.
The comparison nevertheless uses two decades of official test results and indicates that exposure among examined birds has not fallen as voluntary stewardship was intended to achieve. The Welsh committee and government will now decide whether the evidence warrants regulatory change.
11 Sep 2026
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