Ratsak is losing its bite: how to get rid of rats in your ranks
Black rats commonly found in roofs across Australia are developing a genetic mutation that increases their resistance to rat poisons, which continue to kill large numbers of native birds and frogs.
New research shows more than half the studied black rats – the most common form of introduced rats in Australia – had a genetic mutation that indicates some resistance to second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, also known as SGARs.
Black rats are the most common introduced rat in Australia. In Europe, North America and Britain, brown rats have developed resistance to anticoagulant rodenticides. In one UK study, up to half of the observed brown rat population survived repeated ingestion of rat poison.
Experts say the findings are alarming because people might be using larger quantities of poisons to eradicate rats in their homes, thus introducing more poisons into the food chain.
SGARs are so potent that they are lethal to secondary predators that feed on rodents, including tawny frogmouths, Australian boobooks and eastern barn owls.
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Poisons leaching into waterways have also found their way into frogs and toads, while possums and reptiles have also been found to contain SGARs. The poisons work by preventing blood clotting, causing animals to die from internal bleeding.
New research led by Edith Cowan University PhD student and environmental toxicologist Alicia Gorbould found a genetic mutation Tyr25Phe – associated with resistance to anticoagulant rodenticides - in the majority of black rats the team studied.
Gorbould and her colleagues tested the tails of 191 rats caught between 2021 and 2024 in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
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