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British rats found immune to poisons

LONDON, May 4 (UPI) -- Parts of Britain are being overrun by an exploding rat population that has developed a resistance to commonly used poisons, officials say.

Complaint calls to local governments about rat infestations were up by 50,000 to 700,000 last year, with some estimates of the rat population put as high as 50 million, a 13 percent rise over a one-year period, the British tabloid The Daily Mail reported Monday.

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Years of warm winters and wet summers are partly to blame, the British Pest Control Association trade group says, while responsibility is also being put on the proliferation of backyard compost heaps, storefronts abandoned and shuttered due to the economic crisis and reduced garbage collections that leave bins overflowing, the newspaper said.

BPCA officials told The Guardian it plans to hold urgent talks with the British Department of Health, urging them to allow the use of more powerful rodenticides outdoors to combat the rats' growing tolerance to conventional poisons.

"Just as rats built up resistance to the first generation of poisons, such as warfarin, they are now developing resistance to the current generation," Richard Moseley of the BPCA told the Daily Mail.

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