WWhen I was ten years old, I succeeded in my campaign for a family dog. Part of its care, and we rejoiced as owners, the monthly application of the worm was on worm and fleas. With veterinary medicine in my mind as a profession, I enjoyed the theater of veterinarians at home. We bought doses above the table, as the schedule of treatment of the dog in the calendar was determined like five on one side.
We applied these medications to our dog because each owner is another. Because he was encouraged, because he was easy, because he felt right.
A new research confirms the use of these veterinary drugs such as an abnormal checkpoint in the scene of environmental pollution. Simply put, the care of our dog was contaminating the natural world. A A study from the University of Sussex Disclosure of songbirds as the latest victims. The wonderful blue and breast breast are many birds that line their nests with animal fur. Each nest has samples from it contains fibronil and 89 % contains imidocalburide and Permithrin – three very strong insecticides that have been banned for agricultural use in the United Kingdom and the European Union, but can be purchased by anyone for use on pets.
In the study, nest deaths are associated with the concentration of drugs. Never hatch eggs. The chicks have ended after hatching – simultaneously when Almost half of all types of birds in the UK are in a serious decrease. “The simplest interpretation is that eggs and chicks get a sufficient dose of pesticides from the lining of the nest of murder.” Professor Dave Gulson, the co -author of the study, says that there is sufficient medicine in the environment to pollute every blue and wonderful color.
Bird nest pollution reflects our rivers. Studies conducted by Dr. Rosemary Perkins found that FIPRONIL continues in 99 % of the samples taken from 20 English rivers, with Emidoclobide in 66 % of the samples. My dog was one of about 17.5 million cats and dogs in the United Kingdom – about 80 % of a total of 22 million Getting a regular worm for regular fleas, whether it suffers from injury or not. The treatment of fleas for a medium -sized dog contains enough pesticides to kill 60 million bees. Will it take the silence of the vasistic biological diversity for us to hear the cry of nature?
Goulson is one of the many scientists who warn of side damage to veterinary drugs, but the blind organizational spot has kept the environmental repercussions largely hidden – silent like a break. PET drugs are not subject to the same risk assessments as they are for use in livestock. When flea treatments entered the market in the 1990s, their environmental impact was assumed.
I feel that the veterinary profession has been arrested by this moral battle of achieving a balance between pets with environmental responsibility. “It is a real dilemma,” says Dr. Sean McCurcmak, a small veterinarian and preserved. “As a veterinarian, you have entered the right” protection and promotion of animal care. “But you pollute nature – how did we miss this?”
Pets are not the only source. A recent study showed that washing hands by owners in the weeks that followed treatment immediately It is also a major shareholder. MCCOCORMACK describes the lower route of escape that is run in “crazy quantities” through equestrian facilities to protect hoofs and south of feathers. Horses return to the muddy fields, and the fibronil is transported in water and soil, fast and invisible. Veterinary doctors find themselves in a difficult situation. It is restricted in the absence of viable alternatives, the expectations of millions of pet owners who are trying to do the right thing, and the biological phenomenon of fleas.
Fleats can be fatal, and active fleas treatments should eliminate more than 90 % of fleas in the environment. Otherwise, the amazing rate of childbearing – Fleats can put 50 eggs a day – It makes control impossible. Fleas spend most of their lives away from their host, making the elimination more challenging.
As for alternatives, fleas and oral tablets generally contain many harmful chemicals such as topical treatments. Alternative chemical remedies are either strong toxins or essential oils without proven effectiveness.
There is a dangerous economic argument to reduce animal medications in general. Golson, who is also challenged against us Perforial, increased obsession With pets.
Reducing domestic animals can lead to the approach of each case separately. “Most practices improve – the application dates for a design to suit the lifestyle of pets and individual owner,” says McCormk. If the dog is allergic to fleas, it should be prescribed for monthly treatment. But the treatment should not be preventive. You will not deal with an empty scalp for head lice, and the same applies to fleas: if there is no injury, keep it.
We must also welcome recommendations to connect with our pets through education, attention and home cleaning. Regular gum can detect parasites early, allowing interactive treatment. Washing pets in hot water helps every few weeks, and vacuum sleeping areas get rid of fleas and larvae that live there.
And if your pet requires treatment? Please do not let them enter the waterways Ever“McCormack, citing more work from the Golson Laborat 28 days after application. How does this measure the brand’s advice on the back of the package? Most of them are just recommending “48 to 72 hours” to refrain from water after treatment. Pharmaceutical companies put the poison at the comfort of our hands.
The veterinary surgeon, Dr. Claire Whitl, works with farmers to treat livestock strategically, and argues that spring is the perfect time to prepare a conversation about using less medicines with the veterinarian. And the countryside management, such as rotating grazing and longer herbs It can be effective In reducing exposure to parasite, such as some pesticides. Local species like Sainfoin and Chicory not only constitute a structural challenge for parasites, but also contain natural pesticides. “Plant diversification can be better for animal health as well as wildlife health. Whitel says:” The drug should not be the first line of defense. “
Look forward, Parasites develop with the exacerbation of the climateSpreading the new risk of the disease. But on the brighter side, some countries are working to improve the organization. Ireland makes fleas and worms treatments Only a prescriptionProviding a valuable case study for future policy changes in the United Kingdom. Can this urgent cooperation stimulate the organizers of industry, Veterinary Medicines DirectoratePharmaceutical companies and the public ownership of pets?
Our pet protection should not come at the expense of nature protection. I am concerned that these unique human actions of getting rid of parasites, mixed with private sector procrastination to find and financing alternative veterinary drugs, risk switching to the most enjoyable parasite ever. But parasites have a little profit from killing their host. You should keep them alive, in coexistence. There is strength for change, in our toxic hands.
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Sophie Paville writer and scientific contact
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