Abstract

TERATOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL EFFECTS OF A FORMULATION CONTAINING QUINALPHOS, AN ORGANOPHOSPHATE INSECTICIDE IN THE CHICK EMBRYO

Mathur, P. and Taparia, N.*, L.Shahani

Abstract

Present study was designed to investigate the toxic effect of Quinalphos 25% EC Flash, an organophosphate insecticide on chick embryos. The fertilized BV 300 eggs were immersed in low (15mg/l), median (31mg/l) and high (62mg/l) concentrations of the toxicant for one hour on embryonic day (ED) 4 of egg incubation. The teratogenecity was observed on ED 7 of incubation. For studying the biochemical parameters, whole embryo was taken.Level of total proteins and RNA was found to decrease significantly at all the dose levels while DNA was found to increase in a dose dependent manner, with highly significant increase at 62mg/l. However, Glycogen content showed insignificant change. Teratological changes observed in the present study included reduction in the size of brain and eyeballs; incomplete development of eyes, beak and wing buds; edema, gastroschisis, hematomas and hemorrhages. In some groups, eyes and in others beak was totally absent. The fresh body weight also showed significant reduction with increasing dose levels.

Keywords: Biochemistry. Chick embryo. Quinalphos. Teratology