Sodium fluoroacetate

Sodium fluoroacetate, also known by its trade name as a mammal poison compound 1080, is an organofluorine chemical compound with the chemical formula FCH2CO2Na. It is the sodium salt of fluoroacetic acid, and contains sodium cations Na+ and fluoroacetate anions FCH2CO−2. A colourless salt with a taste similar to table salt (sodium chloride), it is used under the name "1080" to kill small and medium mammals, including rodents. New Zealand has no endemic ground-based mammals and is the world's biggest user of 1080, particularly to kill introduced brushtail possums, often with aerial distribution of bait pellets.

Natural occurrence

Fluoroacetate occurs naturally in at least 40 plants in Australia, Brazil, and Africa. It is one of about twenty organofluorine-containing natural products.

Fluoroacetate occurrence in Gastrolobium species

Gastrolobium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. This genus consists of over 100 species, and all but two are native to the southwest region of Western Australia, where they are known as "poison peas". Gastrolobium growing in southwestern Australia concentrate fluoroacetate from low-fluoride soils. The brushtail possums, bush rats, and western grey kangaroos native to this region are capable of safely eating plants containing fluoroacetate, but livestock and introduced species from elsewhere in Australia, and even the eastern populations of the brushtail possum and bush rat, are highly susceptible to the poison, as are species introduced from outside Australia, such as the red fox.