Atrazine effects on the biochemical parameters (health status) of the Eared Dove.

BACH N; FERNÁNDEZ N; CHEDIACK, J. G.; CID, F. D.

Montevideo

Congreso; SETAC Latin America 15th Biennial Meeting.; 2023

SETAC

Pesticides impact on wildlife has been subject of research in recent decades, and its massive use has beenproposed as one of the main causes of biodiversity loss. Atrazine herbicide (ATZ) is widely used inArgentina and the world associated with corn and sorghum crops. Environmental concentrations of theherbicide in waterbodies around the world and some harmful effects on biota are known, highlightingendocrine disruption in amphibians. In birds, a few reports show effects on reproduction, growth,hematological and biochemical parameters. But there is no information about ATZ effects in bird nativespecies. The objective of this study was to elucidate how ATZ affects the health status of Z. auricalatamales by biochemical parameters evaluation (hematocrit, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine, glucose, hepatictransaminases (AST and ALT), cholesterol, low density lipoprotein, total protein, triglycerides, uric acid, andALAD activity). Additionally, body mass (BM) and water intake (WI) were evaluated. Three treatments, twoATZ concentrations (25 and 250 mg/kg) and a control group were evaluated. ATZ was diluted in corn oiland administered by gavage technique intermittently for 15 days. The control group underwent the sameprocedure as the exposed birds, with intermittent gavage administering corn oil, without herbicide. Eachtreatment had 6 replicates. At the beginning and the end of the bioassay, BM and WI was measured, andblood samples were taken from the brachial vein for hematocrit and ALAD evaluation. After exposure, bloodextraction for biochemical parameters determination were performed during morning to avoid the effect ofcircadian rhythm. RM-ANOVA was performed to contrast ATZ effect at start and end of the experiment forBM, WI, hematocrit and ALAD. One-way ANOVA was performed to contrast biochemical parameters (Tukeypost-hoc test, p<0.05) between groups. Data that failed to meet ANOVA assumptions were analyzed byKruskall-Wallis test. No effects were observed for BM, WI, hematocrit and ALAD activity (p>0.05). Forbiochemical parameters, only ALT resulted significantly higher in doves exposed to 25 and 250 mg ATZ/Kg(p<0.05). To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first report of effects on ALT in ATZ exposedbirds. An expected result, since high value of ALT indicates drug intoxication. However, further studiesinvolving effects at the level of the hepatic response could help to understand how ATZ are affecting wildbirds.