Status of Aphis Vertebrate Pesticides and Drugs

The Wildlife Services (WS) Program manages wildlifelhuman conflicts by using an integrated approach employing some vertebrate pesticides. These are used in such small quantities that private industry cannot afford to register and produce them profitably. On behalf of WS, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) maintains about 30 federal and state pesticide registrations, containing seven active ingredients, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These include: the Compound 1080 Livestock Protection Collar, DRC-1339 Concentrates (Starlicide), Gas Cartridges (carbon and sodium nitrate), the M-44 (sodium cyanide), and a number of baits and concentrates containing Strychnine Alkaloid and Zinc Phosphide. In 1988 Congress amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, requiring reregistration of almost all older pesticides. Reregistration had an extensive impact on the WS Program. Over 400 studies, with an estimated cost of about $14 million, were requested by EPA for APHIS products. Through negotiations with EPA, repackaging of old data, and obtaining data waivers for inappropriate studies, National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) and APHIS personnel reduced the data requirements to about 250 studies costing $3 million. In addition, the NWRC managed three Consortia that generated funds and data to maintain Starlicide, strychnine and zinc phosphide products held by APHIS, private industry, and state agencies. APHIS is now entering the final stages of reregistration. Carbon, sodium nitrate, sodium cyanide, Compound 1080, and Starlicide have been reregistered. The Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED), with an appended product-specific data call-in notice, was received for strychnine in March 1997 and the remaining data are being generated. Reregistration of zinc phosphide is expected sometime in 1998. In addition, APHIS now maintains four products for r the WS Program with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under Investigational New Animal Drug (INAD) permits. These include alpha-chloralose (a capturing agent), the Tranquilizer Trap Device (TTD) containing propiopromazine HCl (to sedate animals held in leghold traps and snares) and two immunocontraceptive vaccines, porcine zona pellucida (Zonacon), and gonadotrophin releasing hormone (Gonacon) for contracepting deer and other wild animals.