Dietary Toxicity and Tissue Accumulation of Methylmercury in American Kestrels |
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Authors: | Bennett Richard S French John B Rossmann Ronald Haebler Romona |
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Institution: | (1) US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Mid-continent Ecology Division, 6201 Congdon Boulevard, Duluth, MN 55804, USA;(2) US Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Beltsville Lab, c/o Beltsville Agricultural Research Center-East, Building 308, 10300 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA;(3) US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Mid-continent Ecology Division, 9311 Groh Road, Grosse Ile, MI 48138, USA;(4) US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, 27 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA |
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Abstract: | American kestrels (Falco sparverius) were fed meat diets containing 0, 3, 6, or 12 ppm (dry weight) methylmercury chloride. Birds fed the 12-ppm diet started
to show signs of neurotoxicity after 26 days and all died in 39–49 days. One male kestrel fed the 6-ppm diet died after 75 days
of exposure and several others showed signs of neurotoxicity after 45 days. None of the birds fed the 3-ppm diet died or showed
signs of toxicity. After 59 days of exposure, mercury concentrations in the liver, kidney, and blood of nonreproducing kestrels
increased with increasing dietary concentration. Tissue concentrations of mercury also steadily increased over time in birds
fed diets with 6 ppm mercury, which were necropsied at 8, 15, 29, or 59 days of exposure, reaching mean total mercury concentrations
of 57, 46, and 45 ppm (wet weight) at 59 days in the liver, kidney, and whole blood, respectively. Two pairs of kestrels at
each dietary concentration were allowed to breed. Eggs averaged 8.3 and 18.1 ppm (wet weight) total mercury from birds fed
3- and 6-ppm diets, respectively. Feathers grown during mercury exposure contained high concentrations of mercury: Birds fed
3- and 6-ppm diets contained 275 and 542 ppm total mercury, respectively. |
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