engleski

Investigation of sublethal effects of four commonly used pesticides on zebrafish larvae

In recent years the debate about the usage of pesticides has increased widely. Biodiversity has not only been in observed in Germany but worldwide and is often linked to side-effects of pesticide usage. A vast biodiversity decline is not only a concern for entire ecosystems and food chains but could indirectly also impact ecosystem services. Due to e.g. rainfall pesticides can end up in aquatic systems and thus potentially cause negative effects on non- target organism. Improving the investigative tools for the assessment of pesticide effects is therefore necessary, to be able to understand their modes of action in more detail and extend the available data for pesticides already in use. An increased assessment often calls for a higher usage of test organisms, resulting in a dilemma as it has been an important aim to minimize the usage of laboratory animals. In this study, the effects of four pesticides on zebrafish larvae (Danio rerio) are assessed: namely, insecticides thiacloprid, esfenvalerate and herbicides prosulfocarb and dimethenamid-p. As current regulations only include standardized toxicity testing of the active substances, important data is missing on the different modes of action and possibly varying toxicity of commercial formulations and therefore both are investigated in this study. A comprehensive test-battery has been used and a workflow established to assess multiple sublethal endpoints, e.g. fluorescence-based methods oxidative stress and MXR activity detection as well as behavioral changes and biomarker measurements with a minimal number of test organisms.

pesticides ; zebrafish ; fluorescence ; oxidative stress ; MXR

nije evidentirano