Brodifacoum (BD)

Brodifacoum is a highly lethal 4-hydroxycoumarin vitamin K antagonist anticoagulant poison. In recent years, it has become one of the world's most widely used pesticides. It is typically used as a rodenticide but is also used to control larger mammalian pests such as possum. Brodifacoum has an especially long half-life in the body, which ranges to several months, requiring prolonged treatment with antidotal vitamin K for both human and pet poisonings. Brodifacoum is a 4-hydroxycoumarin anticoagulant, with a similar mode of action to its historical predecessors dicoumarol and warfarin. Brodifacoum inhibits the enzyme vitamin K epoxide reductase. This enzyme is needed for the reconstitution of the vitamin K in its cycle from vitamin K-epoxide, and so brodifacoum steadily decreases the level of active vitamin K in the blood.