azoxystrobin and Body-Weight

Pollinators, particularly wild bees, are suffering declines across the globe, and pesticides are thought to be drivers of these declines. Research into, and regulation of pesticides has focused on the active ingredients, and their impact on bee health. In contrast, the additional components in pesticide formulations have been overlooked as potential threats. By testing an acute oral dose of the fungicide product Amistar, and equivalent doses of each individual co-formulant, we were able to measure the toxicity of the formulation and identify the ingredient responsible. We found that a co-formulant, alcohol ethoxylates, caused a range of damage to bumble bee health. Exposure to alcohol ethoxylates caused 30% mortality and a range of sublethal effects. Alcohol ethoxylates treated bees consumed half as much sucrose as negative control bees over the course of the experiment and lost weight. Alcohol ethoxylates treated bees had significant melanisation of their midguts, evidence of gut damage. We suggest that this gut damage explains the reduction in appetite, weight loss and mortality, with bees dying from energy depletion. Our results demonstrate that sublethal impacts of pesticide formulations need to be considered during regulatory consideration, and that co-formulants can be more toxic than active ingredients.

Topics: Animals; Bees; Body Weight; Feeding Behavior; Fungicides, Industrial; Gastrointestinal Tract; Pyrimidines; Strobilurins; Sucrose

Agricultural fungicide application has increased tenfold since 2005 in the United States. Active ingredients and formulations of strobilurin fungicides at environmentally relevant concentrations cause mortality to larval and metamorph amphibians; however, little is known about chronic exposure effects in amphibians. We exposed larval amphibians (Bufo cognatus) throughout metamorphosis to the common fungicide formulations Headline(®), Stratego(®), Quilt(®), and a control to determine effects on development and growth. Formulations were tested at 1.7, 50, and 400 μg/L of the active strobilurin ingredient for Headline(®), Stratego(®), and Quilt(®), respectively. Fungicide exposure did not affect body mass or snout-vent length at metamorphosis. However, exposure to Headline(®) at 1.7 μg/L increased the development rate of tadpoles by approximately 5 days compared to the control, an effect not observed for Stratego(®) and Quilt(®). Stratego(®) also caused approximately 35 % cumulative mortality. Results from the experiment suggest that chronic effects of strobilurin fungicides on development, growth, and mortality to B. cognatus are apparent at environmentally relevant concentrations.

Topics: Acetates; Animals; Body Weight; Bufonidae; Carbamates; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drug Combinations; Female; Fungicides, Industrial; Larva; Male; Metamorphosis, Biological; Methacrylates; Mortality; Pyrazoles; Pyrimidines; Strobilurins; Toxicity Tests, Chronic; Triazoles; Water Pollutants, Chemical