Monitoring

CRRU UK

HSE has asked CRRU UK to fund and conduct a series of studies to monitor implementation and impacts of the regime:

  • Levels of anticoagulant residues in the livers of UK barn owls will be monitored annually. HSE will expect to see a significant decline in the proportion of barn owls carrying rodenticide residues and a reduction in the concentration of residues in the owls’ bodies as a result of stewardship implementation. Breeding success of selected barn owl populations will be studied to determine impacts, if any, of rodenticide use.
  • A periodic survey will be conducted on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of all professional rodenticide users in order to observe changes over time in these important criteria. A baseline survey has already been conducted in advance of regime implementation.
  • An annual appraisal will be published of incidents reported to by the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS).
  • The current status of the distribution and severity of anticoagulant resistance in Norway rats and house mice in the UK will be presented in the form of a CRRU report from the University of Reading.

Purpose:

  • Liaise with appointed contractors and/or agencies for all monitoring mechanisms, including SGAR residues in barn owls; barn owl breeding and population investigations; and knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) surveys among rodenticide buyers and users.
  • Establish contracts between funding agencies and contractors.
  • Ensure scientific and statistical veracity of monitoring projects.
  • Co-ordinate provision of reports at required intervals and oversee publication of monitoring data.

Work Group Members

Monitoring
Richard Moseley – Monitoring WG lead
Colin Prescott – University of Reading
Pierluigi Carlan – ZAPI
Alan Buckle – CRRU/University of Reading
Gareth Capel-Williams – PelGar
Matthew Davies – Killgerm
Alistair Leake – GWCT