Flea treatment-tainted pet fur lining songbird nests may be killing chicks

Songbird nests are being contaminated by insecticides applied to pets. The compounds frequently found in shampoos, spot-on treatments or impregnated collar flea treatments for cats and dogs were identified in fur taken from the nests of blue tits and great tits in the UK. These pesticides have now been linked to a higher chance of these songbirds’ eggs failing to hatch and chicks dying in the nest.

Over 27 tonnes of fipronil and 33 tonnes of imidacloprid have been sold for companion animal parasite treatment in the UK since the 1990s. ‘Flea treatments for companion animals don’t have a thorough environmental risk assessment, unlike for agricultural pesticides,’ says Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu, an ecologist at the University of Sussex, UK, who carried out the research. She wants to see this change in Europe.