Comparison of the adverse effects of the acaricide Amitraz and the pure drug

PADULA G; PONZINIBBIO MV; PICCO S; SEOANE A

TOXICOLOGY MECHANISMS AND METHODS

TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2014

1537-6524

Pesticide poisoning occurs when chemicals intended to control a pest affect non-target organisms. By this way virtually all people are inevitably exposed to pesticides either through environmental contamination or their occupational use. While data on the acute toxicity of many of chemicals is plentiful, knowledge on their delayed effects is much more limited. Amitraz is a formamidine insecticide and acaricide with agronomic and veterinary uses. The aim of this study was to compare in vitro the genotoxic potential of amitraz as active ingredient with the genotoxic potential of its commercial formulation by means of quantitative alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis and cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay. For this purpose, cells were cultured during one cellular cycle in Ham's F10 medium containing 1.25; 2.5 and 3.75 µg/ml of amitraz. All of the tested genotoxicity parameters clearly showed the capability of the commercial formulation of amitraz to negatively affect DNA, inducing both cytogenetic and cytomolecular damage under our experimental conditions. After culturing the cells with the active constituent of the formulation only a non significant slight increase was found. Since our findings showed that the active component of the formula is not solely responsible for the genotoxic effect observed, we emphasize the importance of taking into account the adverse effect of the solvents used in commercial formulations of pesticides.