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1080 : A Selective Poison For Pests, D R. King

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Since the 1960s, the control programmes for rabbits and dingoes in Western Australia have relied heavily on the use of sodium monofluoroacetate, more commonly known as compound 1080. Large quantaties are used each year as it is a valuable substance for the control of vertebrate pests.

Once in the animal's body 1080 is converted to fluorocitrate, a poison which is highly toxic to most mammals. Fluorocitrate blocks the Krebs cycle, a fundamental pathway of energy exchange in animals and plants. The animal dies as a result of damage to the heart, or to the brain and central nervous system, or …