Lethal and sub-lethal effects of the insecticide fipronil on juvenile brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus

Abstract

Chemical pesticides are widely used around the world, but at the same time, they may cause direct or indirect risks to many non-target organisms. Recent increased use of insecticides in coastal areas, for example to control invasive tawny crazy ants, raises concern that insecticides may affect ecologically and/or commercially important species found in estuaries. Here, we investigated the lethal and sub-lethal effects of fipronil on juvenile brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus over 29 days at five different nominal concentrations (0.1, 1.0, 3.0, 6.4, and 10.0 µg/L) in a laboratory experiment. Exposure to all of the fipronil treatments resulted in all individuals dying before the end of the experiment; whereas, no individual died in the control (0.0 µg/L). The 96-hour LC50 was determined to be 1.3 µg/L. Shrimp also experienced weight loss under all of the fipronil treatments. Inter-moult interval was increased from 12.2 ± 1.64 day in the control group to 15.5 ± 0.53 day in the 1.0 μg/L treatment. Lipid content of shrimp increased significantly in a concentration-dependent manner. Finally, behavioral and body color changes were also observed under the fipronil treatments. We conclude F. aztecus is very sensitive to fipronil and monitoring is needed in coastal areas.

Short-term effects of pesticide fipronil on behavioral and physiological endpoints of Daphnia magna

“…It is possible that blocking the GABA-regulated chloride channels in neurons resulted in overexcitation of neurons innervating daphnid muscles of second antennae responsible for swimming activity which led to spastic paralysis as it was found in insects (Hossie et al 1995 ). Similar results were obtained by Al-Badran et al ( 2018 ) who found reduction of locomotor activity in juvenile brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus with specific movement disturbances such as swimming in circles. Our results also seem to be in agreement with those obtained by Hussain et al ( 2020 ) who demonstrated depression of Daphnia magna locomotor activity after the exposure to FIP at a concentration of 0.117 μg/L.…”

“…In zebrafish embryos, larvae and adults adverse changes of behavioral parameters and oxidative stress were also found (Stehr et al 2006 ; Bevilaqua et al 2020 ). FIP also induces toxic effects in marine and freshwater crustaceans such as estuarine copepod Amphiascus tenuiremis (Chandler et al 2004 ), kuruma prawn, sand shrimp, and a surrogate mysid species Americamysis bahia (Hano et al 2019 ), blue crab Callinectes sapidus (Goff et al 2017 ), juvenile brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus (Al-Badran et al 2018 ), and grass shrimp Palaemonetes pugio (Key et al 2003 ).…”

The potential ameliorative impacts of cerium oxide nanoparticles against fipronil-induced hepatic steatosis

“…Around the world, pesticides are widely used to control plant and animal pests but they have direct and/or indirect toxic effects on beneficial organisms 1 . Among pesticides, fipronil (FIP) [5-amino-3-cyano-1-(2,6-dichloro-4-trifluoromethylphenyl) 4-fluoromethylsulfinyl pyrazole] is a second-generation phenylpyrazole insecticide 2 extensively used in the veterinary clinical field against many pests, and ectoparasites 3 , 4 .…”

Collateral damage of fipronil in economic and ecologically important non-target species

“…Although most studies have concentrated on the impact of fipronil in the phylum Arthropoda (insects, arachnids and crustacea), it is also toxic for other taxa in the phyla mollusks and Cnidaria (Figure 1). Laboratory studies of the coastal brown shrimp, Farfantepenaeus aztecus, estimated a fipronil 96-hr LC50 of 1.3 ppb (Al-badran et al, 2018). However, at concentrations from 0.1 ppb to 10 ppb, survival was progressively reduced to the point that all individuals died after 28 days of exposure.…”