Toxicity Test of Individual and Combined Toxic Effects of Glyphosate Herbicide and Heavy Metals on Chicken Embryos

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the individual and combined toxicity of Glialka Star herbicide (glyphosate 360 g/l) and heavy metals (copper and cadmium) on the development of chicken embryos. On the first day of incubation, chicken eggs were injected by 0.1 ml of the test materials. The applied concentration of copper and cadmium sulphate was 0.01% and that of herbicide Glialka Star was 2%. The chicken embryos were examined on day 19 by the followings: rate of embryo mortality, body mass, type of developmental anomalies by macroscopic examination. The body weight was evaluated statistically by oneway ANOVA combined with Dunnett post-test, the embryo mortality and the developmental anomalies were analysed by Fisher test. Our teratogenicity study revealed that the combined administration of heavy metals (copper, cadmium) and glyphosate (K-salt) containing herbicide formulation caused significant reduction in the body weight of embryos and a significant increase in the rate of embryonic mortality and the incidence of developmental anomalies. The joint toxic effect of heavy metals and Glialka Star is an additive effect compared to the individual toxicity of the test materials.