Back to the future for APHIS's vertebrate pesticides

Many vertebrate pesticides used by the Bureau of Biological Survey at the turn of the century were registered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) beginning in 1960 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A review of archives and other documents at the Denver Wildlife Research Center (DWRC) has shown that a total of 72 federal registrations were established by the USFWS between 1960 and 1985. Because of increased regulation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), selective transfers from USFWS to USDA, voluntary cancellations, conversions to state local need registrations, and a reduced development pace, there are now only 21 federal vertebrate pesticide registrations. They are maintained by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for the Animal Damage Control (ADC) program. As a result of a 1988 Amendment to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA 88), DWRC initiated in 1989 an extensive reregistration program for ADC's vertebrate pesticides. In the past three years, DWRC and its cooperators have submitted 188 studies in support of the reregistration of products containing strychnine, sodium cyanide, zinc phosphide, compound 1080, sodium nitrate, carbon, DRC-1339, and PA-14. Since 1989, the reregistration of these 8 active ingredients has taken priority over the development of new vertebrate pesticides at DWRC in order to concentrate on gathering data for these chemicals of the past. New tools to mitigate human and wildlife conflicts must continue to be the goal of present and future federal research