Chloralose (also known as α-chloralose) is an avicide, and a rodenticide used to kill mice in temperatures below 15°C. It is also widely used in neuroscience and veterinary medicine as an anesthetic and sedative.[1] Either alone or in combination, such as with urethane, it is used for long-lasting, but light anesthesia.[2] It has been used with oral administration to sedate wild Canada geese for translocation in Nevada.[3]
Chloralose exerts barbiturate-like actions on synaptic transmission in the brain, including potent effects at inhibitory γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABAAR).[4][5] A structural isomer of chloralose, β-chloralose (also called parachloralose in older literature), is inactive as a GABAAR modulator and also as a general anesthetic.[6]
Chloralose is often abused for its avicide properties. In the United Kingdom, protected birds of prey have been killed using the chemical.
Legal use for bird control also often causes raptor mortalities from secondary poisoning, as well as primary poisoning of non-target species from eating bait, for example, kererū pigeon in New Zealand.[7]
References
↑Silverman J, Muir WW (Jun 1993). "A review of laboratory animal anesthesia with chloral hydrate and chloralose". Lab Anim Sci. 43 (3): 210–6. PMID8355479.
↑Vogler, George A. (2006-01-01), Suckow, Mark A.; Weisbroth, Steven H.; Franklin, Craig L. (eds.), "Chapter 19 - Anesthesia and Analgesia", The Laboratory Rat (Second Edition), American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine, Burlington: Academic Press, pp.627–664, ISBN978-0-12-074903-4, retrieved 2021-03-21{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
