Fatal aldicarb intoxication in dogs and cats: study of post mortem macroscopic alterations and toxicological diagnosis using thin-layer chromatography in samples of stomach content / Intoxicação por aldicarb ("chumbinho") em cães e gatos: estudo das alterações post mortem macroscópicas e diagnóstico toxicológico por meio da cromatografia em camada delgada em amostras de conteúdo estomacal

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2004

RESUMO

Pesticides are the main cause of poisoning in human beings and in wild and domestic animals. Preliminary data suggest that the carbamate insecticide aldicarb, illegally sold in São Paulo city as rat poison, has also been used for intentional poisoning of dogs and cats. The Service of Necropsy, Department of Pathology of School of Veterinary Medicine, University of São Paulo has often been registered cases of aldicarb poisoning in companion animals. The present study concerns a retrospective evaluation of all 1633 autopsies performed by that Service from 1999 to 2003. In this period, 234 cases of dog or cat poisoning were identified and reviewed with emphasis on characterization of post mortem findings as well as identification of aldicarb residues using thin-layer chromatography. In the current series poisonings represented 14.3% of causes of death (9.8% in dogs and 31.8% in cats). The main agent was aldicarb (214 cases) responsible for 89.0% of the intoxications in dogs and 94.4% in cats. Other agents were anti-coagulants (9.4% in dogs and 0.9% in cats), sodium monofluoracetate (1.6% in dogs) and no specified organic solvent(4.7% in cats). All animals poisoned with aldicarb had dark granules in the gastric content. The most commonly affected organs were lung (91.1% with hemorrhage, edema and/or congestion), liver (64.0% with congestion) and kidney (43.4% with congestion). The thin-layer chromatography was positive in all samples of animals poisoned with aldicarb. This technique showed to be an efficient, fast and not expensive qualitative method for the detection of aldicarb in samples of gastric content, being useful for this purpose in others types of samples like foods and baits. The present study confirms that the aldicarb is the principal cause of poisoning in companion animals in the city of Sao Paulo and the detection of this pesticide is possible using the clinical history, the study of post mortem alterations and an analytical method like thin-layer chromatography

ASSUNTO(S)

carbamates dogs carbamatos cromatografia pesticides chromatography aldicarb gatos cães necrópsia animal aldicarb cats pesticidas animal necropsy

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