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Lethal and sublethal effects of cypermethrin to Hypsiboas pulchellus tadpoles

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Abstract

The study of the effects of the insecticide cypermethrin (CY) technical grade and its Sherpa® commercial formulation on Hypsiboas pulchellus tadpoles assessing lethality, behavior, growth, and abnormalities under standardized laboratory conditions is reported. Observed behaviors were identified and categorized by means of a ranking system according to the loss of mobility. Results of acute lethal effects indicate higher potency for Sherpa® at this level of assessment. All effects on behavior showed an increasing degree of injury as insecticide concentration increased. Organisms exposed to technical grade CY showed lower body length with respect to controls from 3.44 µg CY/L to higher concentrations, whereas those exposed to Sherpa® exhibited lower growth from 0.83 µg CY/L. Both forms of the tested insecticide caused abnormalities between 0.34 and 4.18 µg CY/L, but 100% of malformed individuals was detected from 34.4 µg CY/L for those exposed to the technical grade CY, and from 8.36 µg CY/L for those exposed to Sherpa®. This study proposes the use of easily identifiable and distinguishable sublethal end-points. The high input loads of CY in natural environments, the detected concentrations in the field, in addition to the low levels of this insecticide required to induce sublethal effects (which could eventually lead to death), allow for the conclusion that the insecticide is a risk factor for amphibians inhabiting agroecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. N. G. Basso for allowing use of instrumentation, Dr. D. Marino for chemical analysis of samples, CIMA-Grupo Anfibio for assistance in the experiments, and C. Knipp for editorial suggestions. This study was funded by the ANPCyT PICT project 38350.

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  1. Centro de Investigaciones del Medio Ambiente, Departamento de Química, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata-CONICET, 47 y 115, 1900, La Plata, Argentina

    M. Gabriela Agostini, Guillermo S. Natale & Alicia E. Ronco

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  1. M. Gabriela Agostini
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  2. Guillermo S. Natale
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  3. Alicia E. Ronco
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Correspondence to Alicia E. Ronco.

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Agostini, M.G., Natale, G.S. & Ronco, A.E. Lethal and sublethal effects of cypermethrin to Hypsiboas pulchellus tadpoles. Ecotoxicology 19, 1545–1550 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-010-0539-3

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