Fighting the Rat Plague – environmentally friendly and without causing suffering.

Rats destroy up to 25% of the annual harvests. They are causing tremendous agricultural damage while each rat population may eat up to one ton of food every year. In addition, food supplies in warehouses that are not eaten up are contaminated from their feces and urine. Furthermore, stocks are most endangered because diseases like swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu etc. are transmitted by rats living on infested farms. It is an immense challenge to farmers to keep their property rat free.

Rats gnaw on wood, synthetics, fabrics, isolations, tubes and pipes. They cause massive damages to buildings and fundaments, destroying infrastructure and endangering the safety of bridge, buildings and other facilities, causing billions of annual losses worldwide. Above all, they and their parasites are can transmit severe and even lethal diseases. Among those are: Orthohanta virus, Ebola, the Plague and Leptospirosis, which in the most severe cases can cause liver- and kidney failure. In addition, many fatal cases of meningitis in the USA alone are annually caused by lungworms from rats. Furthermore, rats are so-called ‘reservoire animals’ for parasites like ticks which in turn can transmit Lyme Disease and TBE. Rats are frequently found in sewers near hospitals where they usually carry and potentially transmit multidrug-resistant germs like E. coli, salmonella and others. After all they can transmit such diseases to humans via direct contact. Through our globalsied and very mobile society such germs can travel great distances very quickly.

Rats multiply rapidly. Every female rat may get pregnant every 4 – 6 weeks giving birth to up to 4 - 12 infant rats. In summary, every single female rat will have some 1 – 2000 descendants during it's life span. New York alone is assumed to have a Rat population of about 8 Million Rats, Berlin is assumed to host 3-6 Million, and in all of Germany the Rat Population is estimated up to 350 Million. Worldwide estimates are 3-4 Animals per human being - summing up to 20-30 billion rats with a tendency to grow even larger every year. In Great Britain, India and other countries all over the world new giant rats have appeared. These mutant rats can grow up to 1,2 meters body length, not including tail length. They may cause an additional threat to the civilized world. Above all, rats have generated resistance to conventional anticoagulant type rodenticides in many highly populated areas of the world. Being a large selection advantage, spreading of resistance to the coumarin type of rodenticides has become an increasing problem for rat control. In a few areas of Germany, starting from the Dutch border across the Ruhr area and Hannover. The Rats are almost 100% resistant towards most 1st generation and also many 2nd generation anticoagulant type rodenticides. Current estimates count up to an average 40-70% of rat populations in the western world having become resistant towards the 1st generation of rodenticides.

2nd generation anticoagulant rodenticides initially have overcome the problem of resistance and only a subgroup of rodents have also become resistant towards 2nd generation rodenticides. However, 2nd generation rodenticides are much more harmful to the environment. Such substances are degraded at a very slowly to extremely slow rate. Hence, when exposed to the environment they heavily contaminate earth and waters. Furthermore, other animals can accidentally feed from such baits, accumulating the toxins in their bodies which in turn may poison and consecutively kill scavengers and predators. New research shows that these substances also accumulate in fish and even fully processed and filtered tap water, therefore even becoming a part of human food- and water intake.

Because of that, 2nd generation rodenticides are only approved to the indoor use (with only very few exceptions). Also to mention are other means of rat combat like traps etc. Unfortunately, their efficacy is only very limited. Furthermore, rats are able to recognize these traps as potentially fatal and hence avoid them. Therefore, traps etc. are unsuitable tool to exterminate entire rat populations or prevent the (re-)colonialization of substantial plots of land. Prof. Dr. Dietrich Gulba has developed a group 3rd generation of anticoagulant and sustainable rodenticide that are devoid of the development of resistance.

A new (third) generation of anticoagulant rodenticides

This new generation of anticoagulant rodenticide is devoid of all the shortcomings of the 1st- and 2nd generation. They mark a sensational advancement in rat control.

New oraly active anticoagulant substances (coumarins, NOACs) have been developed for anticoagulant therapy in human medicine in recent years. Such NOACs are progressively replacing coumarins in thrombosis prevention. In contrast to coumarins (which prevent blood coagulation by inhibition of Vitamin K and the synthesis of multiple coagulation factors) such NOACs inhibit activated coagulation factors in a 1 : 1 ratio. These new substances have been exclusively used for therapeutic uses in human medicine and therefore have gained patent protection exclusively for therapeutic use in humans. We have filed patent claims for the use of such agents for use in rodents.

Since coagulation in mammals and birds share the same type of cascading activation processes these substances are also actively inhibiting blood coagulation in pests like rats. Basing on the inhibition of coagulation factors, the mechanism of action of NOACs, similar to conventional Vitamin K antagonistic rodenticides, includes a delay phase between ingestion and lethal action of 12 hours up to several days. This delay is essential in order to make it impossible for the rats to connect the ingestion of the bait to the death of fellow rats. Such a delayed mode of action is therefore of utmost importance since rats, finding new food sources, will always send out one (or more) fellow rat(s) as a “food taster” to test the compatibility of such food, and fellow rats of this tribe will not start feeding from that very food source until the taster has survived for at least a day after bait-ingestion.

The effect of our 3rd generation of rodenticide, in contrast to the conventional Vitamin K antagonist-based classical rodenticides, is based on the direct 1 : 1 molecular interaction with one or more of the coagulation factors, which makes the generation of resistance to such an agent highly unlikely. Simultaneously, the degradability of such agents and the lack of environmental persistence marks further major and decisive advantages in comparison to conventional 2nd generation rodenticides. Furthermore, when bait boxes become leaky and the rodenticide leaks into the environment or into water, the new generation rodenticides are rapidly diluted and washed away as they become rapidly degraded in the environment. After ingestion by the target animal (rats) the 3rd generation compound rodenticides become rapidly metabolized and hence progressively lose any cross toxicity to predators and scavengers. Contamination of earth, waters or other animals is thus reliably prevented.

Future possibilities include the better species-(rat)-selectivity as well as the modulation and optimization of the biological half-life. Together with a partner we also set up a program for the molecular modifications of the specific agents with rational drug design and -selection by detailed screening for further optimization of the properties of the new rodenticides.

The efficacy of our concept of 3rd generation rodenticides has already been proven in a “Proof of Principle” study in wild caught rats.

For further details please also visit our teaser.