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Toxicity of aldicarb and fonofos to the early-life-stage of the fathead minnow

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Abstract

Flow-through early-life-stage (ELS) toxicity tests were conducted with the pesticides aldicarb (Temik®) and fonofos (Dyfonate®) to determine their effect on the survival and growth of fathead minnows. Concentrations of 78μg/L of aldicarb and 16μg/L of fonofos did not affect survival and growth. However, 156μg/L of aldicarb and 33μg/L of fonofos were lethal to larval-juvenile exposed for 30 days post-hatch. The maximum acceptable toxicant concentration (MATC) of aldicarb and fonofos for the fathead minnow is estimated to be between 78–156μg/L and 16–33μg/L, respectively. The corresponding chronic values (geometric mean of MATC values) would be 110μg/L and 23μg/L. Acute toxicity tests gave 96-hr LC50 values of 1370μg aldicarb/L and 1090μg fonofos/L. The acute-chronic ratio (96-hr LC50/chronic value) is 12 for aldicarb and 47 for fonofos.

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Pickering, Q.H., Gilliam, W.T. Toxicity of aldicarb and fonofos to the early-life-stage of the fathead minnow. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 11, 699–702 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01059157

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01059157

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