State testing finds rodenticide compounds in all sampled fishers, most bobcats, Fish & Wildlife tells committee

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department officials told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry Committee on Oct. 12, 2025, that liver tests of trapper-submitted carcasses collected from 2018–2022 detected anticoagulant rodenticide compounds in every sampled fisher and in the majority of sampled bobcat carcasses.

The finding matters because anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) interfere with vitamin K–dependent blood clotting and can suppress immunity or reproduction; agency scientists warned that those sublethal effects, combined with other stressors, could pose longer-term risks even though no statewide population declines have been detected so far.

John Austin, director of the Wildlife Division at the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the department shares the committee’s concerns about rodenticide presence and is working with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. "The overall goal is to come up with strategies that are effective at minimizing risk of exposure of these substances to wildlife," Austin told the committee. Rhee ("Bree") Furphy, the department’s furbearer project leader, presented the sampling and laboratory results and answered legislators’ questions.

Agency testing covered trapper-derived…