Study On Reproduction Toxicity Of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate In Quail

To approach the reproductive toxicity of perfluorooctane sulfonate(PFOS) in avians,an oral administration experiment was performed in the quail that can be applied as animal indicators.In this study,control groups were set up both in female and male quail.The doses of PFOS were 12.5,25.0 and 50.0 mg/kg(calculated with PFOS in forage) respectively in the female exposure groups.The female quail were administrated with PFOS for 71 days when body weight,laying rate,fertility rate,hatchability,mortality of poults and deformity rate were evaluated.The male quail of exposure groups were administrated with PFOS in 10 and 30 mg/kg for 54 days and 70 days when body weight,the organ coefficient of testicle and epididymis,the activities of succniate dehydrogenase(SDH) and lactate dehydrogenase(LDH) in testicle,as well as the concentrations of testosterone(T),3,5,3'-triiodothyronine(T₃), thyroxin(T₄),thyroid stimulating hormone(TSH) in serum were determined.Results indicated that the body weight of female quail in 50.0 mg/kg dosage group was significantly lower than that in control group after 33 days exposure to PFOS(P＜0.01),and mortality was observed.Body weight of quail in 12.5 and 25.0 mg/kg dose groups exhibited no significant differences from those in control group.There was a hysteresis in the beginning time of egg laying in dose groups and laying rate of female quail in 25.0 and 50.0 mg/kg dose groups were significantly lower than those in control group(P＜0.01).Rate of fertilization, hatchability and the body weight of poults in 12 hours after hatching in dose groups were lower than those in control group.Moreover,the deformity rate and the mortality of poults in 12 hours after hatching in dose groups were higher than those in control group.The concentrations of PFOS in serum and egg yolk rose with the increase of PFOS dose.The levels of PFOS in the eggs that laid within 5 days after the beginning of egg laying were significantly higher(P＜0.01) than those laid within 3 days before the experiment termination and significant correlation was observed(P＜0.01).Results of the study suggested that PFOS postponed the beginning time of egg laying in female quail,and had adverse effects on fertilization rate,hatchability of female quail,as well as survival and development of poults after hatching.The results of the reproductive toxicity induced by PFOS in male quail indicated that the body weights of male quail in 30 mg/kg dosage group were significantly lower than those in control group after 8 days exposure to PFOS(P＜0.05).The food intake of exposure groups decreased compared with the control,but no death was observed among those groups.The organ coefficient of testicle and epididymis of exposure groups was smaller than the control, and the organ coefficient of epididymis in the 30 mg/kg group at 70 days exposure to PFOS (P＜0.05) was significantly smaller than the control.The LDH activity and the number of sperm in epididymis showed a trend to decrease with the dose of PFOS,but there was no significant difference between the exposure and control groups.The SDH activity in testicle and the T level in serum of the 30 mg/kg group decreased significantly compared with the control(P＜0.05).The T₃ and T₄ contents in serum displayed a trend to decrease with the dose of PFOS,and the TSH level trended to increase,but there was no significant difference among those groups.