Are Endocrine Disrupting Compounds a Threat to Farm Animal Health, Welfare and Productivity?

Abstract

Contents The sources and characteristics of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are reviewed and discussed with respect to their potential effects on farm animal health, welfare and productivity. The importance of certain properties of these compounds in relation to the expression of their biological effects is addressed together with potential routes of exposure. It is concluded that little is known of factors affecting the tissue concentrations of EDCs in farm animals, the concentrations that are required to perturb physiological function in these species, the effects of prolonged exposure to low doses, the effect of cocktails of EDCs and other pollutants or the responses of specific organs and physiological systems that are affected by EDCs. Much of the available information pertaining to EDCs is derived from epidemiological studies of wildlife species and from laboratory animal studies and while these studies have significant limitations, they are considered to be valuable indicators of potential effects in farm animal species. The results of such studies, together with the small amounts of data from studies of ruminants, indicate that there may be significant effects of exposure to environmental levels of EDCs on farm animal health, even although effects are not generally apparent in practice, at this time.

Exposure to pastures fertilised with sewage sludge disrupts bone tissue homeostasis in sheep

“…Since these are known to exert adverse effects on animal and human physiology and health (IEH, 1999;Toppari et al, 1996), potential effects on wildlife, domestic animals and humans are of concern. Theoretical and empirical studies, designed to investigate the issue of accumulation of pollutants in domestic animal products, generally indicate that exposure to sewage sludge is associated with only limited tissue accumulation (Rhind, 2005;Rhind et al, 2005a;Rhind et al, 2005b;Smith, 1995) and so the risks to humans of exposure to pollutants through the consumption of animal products is likely to be small. On the other hand, previous studies of sheep grazing pastures fertilized with either sewage sludge or inorganic fertiliser have shown that exposure to EDCs and other pollutants through the sewage sludge can disrupt the development and function of the foetal testis (Paul et al, 2005), ovary (Fowler et al, 2008) and adult offspring behavior (Erhard and Rhind, 2004).…”

Epigenetics and developmental programming of welfare and production traits in farm animals

“…Environmental chemicals, including endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) can adversely program components of the reproductive axis (brain-pituitary-gonad-uterus), altering important aspects of offspring fertility and causing financial loss to livestock producers Rhind 2005). These chemicals largely come from industrial processes, domestic effluents and agricultural practices.…”

Aneuploid sperm formation in rainbow trout exposed to the environmental estrogen 17α-ethynylestradiol

“…Through these actions environmental estrogens affect vertebrate reproduction across a wide range of doses causing reduced fertility and fecundity, altered reproductive behavior, gonad morphological changes, and decreased embryonic survival (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34). Although both sexes are affected, males exhibit the highest degree and number of detrimental effects.…”