PARENT SESSION

PM11 Wildlife Ecotoxicology
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Monday

(PM175) Effects of type and amount of carrier injected into lizard eggs on hatching success.

Cooper, N¹, Talent, L¹, ¹ Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA

ABSTRACT- There is a need for a good reptile egg assay. We are evaluating eastern (Sceloporus undulatus) and western fence lizards (S. occidentalis) as candidates for a laboratory reptile model. One aspect of our research is evaluating the eggs of both species for use in a lizard egg assay for detecting endocrine disrupting chemicals. A basic requirement of a reptile egg assay is knowledge about the effects on survival of the chemical used as a carrier. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of injecting different types of chemical carriers into eggs on embryonic survival. The carriers tested included acetone, water, corn oil, ethyl alcohol, propylene glycol, and DMSO. Eggs were collected from a laboratory population of fence lizards on the day of oviposition and incubated on moist perlite at 30°C. On day six of incubation, eggs were injected with amounts of each carrier that ranged from 1 to 8 l/egg. Eggs were monitored daily until they died or hatched. Eggs tolerated all carriers fairly well and mortality for all carrier-injected eggs was typically less than 10% at dose amounts less than 2 l/egg. The highest mortality occurred in eggs that were injected with water and ethyl alcohol. Fence lizard eggs appear to have potential for use in lizard egg assays.

Key words: egg injection, reptile model, carrier, lizard