Anticoagulant exposure and notoedric mange in bobcats and mountain lions in urban Southern California

This study linked an epizootic of severe notoedric mange in urban bobcats and mountain lions to exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides. By combining disease surveillance, necropsy and toxicology in radio-collared cats around Los Angeles, the authors found that animals dying of mange almost invariably carried rodenticide residues, suggesting that sublethal poisoning compromised immune function and allowed normally manageable mite infestations to become fatal. The work connected a human-introduced toxicant to a wildlife disease outbreak, revealing an indirect pathway by which urbanization drives felid mortality. It reshaped understanding of mange in wild cats as a disease of immunosuppression rather than simple parasite exposure and influenced policy debates over rodenticide use near wildlands and the conservation of urban-edge carnivores.