Ian Parsons, [11 Jul 2022 at 10:34:19]: Good morning. Any strong opinions on the potential consequences of scavengers eating residual etorphine in an elephant carcass? It was darted but destroyed before reversal I believe. Elmien Kotze, [11 Jul 2022 at 11:19:13]: I have had hunting dogs that ate scavenge from nyala carcasses that died during darting process. 2 of them had severe low blood pressure, severe lethargy and we hospitalised them for more than 24 hours. Once we got the truth out of them where they hunted, gave them naltrexone, yohimbine and atipamezole. They recovered within an hour. The nyala darts had medetomidine in it as well. So only fully recovered once we gave the yohimbine as well. Henry Labuschagne, [11 Jul 2022 at 12:19:54]: Remember reversal only removes the agonist from the receptors. The agonist is still present in the animal and the meat is only safe for consumption after the agonist is metabolised and excreted. Dr. Mtalika M.I, [11 Jul 2022 at 12:35:53]: How long it takes for agonist to be completely metabolised and excreted under normal circumstances? Henry Labuschagne, [11 Jul 2022 at 12:37:40]: If there is no withdrawal time registered by law no consumption within 100 days. (Moderator : Current limit is 120 days) Pierre Nel, [12 Jul 2022 at 14:34:24]: Henry. With both agonist and antagonist in the carcass ( of animal that died after reversal); won’t the antagonist bind preferentially and block the agonist even in the predator that ate from that carcass? Henry Labuschagne, [12 Jul 2022 at 14:38:33]: Not sure. If that is the case, then all carcasses that also got antagonist should be safe to consume . Richard Burroughs, The agonist would be in the central compartment, and the predator would largely be eating meat, organs etc. in the peripheral compartment, so unlikely to get enough amounts in to cause enough of an effect, unless soon after death. There may also be species differences in terms of susceptibility, - see Elmien's situation above. My theory Roy Bengis, [12 Jul 2022 at 18:08:42]: In all my years in Kruger, there were occasional mortalities in darted mega- herbivores. These carcasses were left in the veld after post mortem. We never detected any apparent related problem in scavengers, which we attributed to the huge dilution factor. I would like Peter Buss, Cobus Raath , Dave Cooper and others to comment
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3 brown hyenas in captivity were fed on an impala that died during darting. The animals did not show any signs . The all carcass was consumed in few hours