PH25 Wildlife Ecotoxicology II
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Thursday
(PH277) The acute and chronic effects of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate to Northern Bobwhites.
Newsted, J1, Beach, S.2, Gallagher, S3, Giesy, J4, 1 Entrix, Inc, Okemos, MI, USA2 3 M, St. Paul, MN, USA3 Wildlife International, Ltd., Easton, MD, USA4 Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
ABSTRACT- Perfluorinated chemicals have been widely used in commerce and until recently, little was known about their environmental fate and their potential environmental effects. The assessment of possible effects has been hampered by a lack of toxicological data in wildlife. Recently, several toxicological studies have examined the acute and chronic effects of PFOS on avian species. Here we review and evaluate the results of studies conducted with the northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). Toxicological endpoints that were evaluated included mortality, behavior and appearance, body weight, growth, feed consumption, gross pathology and histopathology. Reproductive endpoints included egg production, measures of egg fertility and hatchability, and offspring survival. PFOS concentrations were also measured in the liver and serum of adults and offspring and eggs. In a dietary acute study, the 8-day LC50 for quail was 212 mg PFOS/kg (95% CI= 158-278) while the NOAEC based on the reduction of body weight at Day 8 was 70.3 mg PFOS/kg. In the reproduction study, quail were exposed to 0, 10, 50 and 150 mg PFOS/kg in the diet for up to 21 weeks. However, due to overt signs of toxicity by Week 5, only the 10 mg PFOS/kg treatment was continued. In this dose group, no treatment related effects on adult body weight or feed consumption were observed. There was a significant increase in female liver weight. In adult males, there was an increase in the incidence of small testes size. In addition, there were slight, but not statistically significant treatment-related reductions in fertility, hatchability, and a statistically significant reduction in offspring survival. Finally, due to observed sex-specific differences in serum and liver PFOS concentrations in adult birds, a kinetic analysis of the concentration data was conducted. The results of this analysis and the determination of effect levels in this species are discussed.
Key words: toxicity, Quail, fluorochemical, PFOS