A Bioassay Detecting Pesticide Toxicity using Artemia salina

Overview

Objectives/Goals The effects of three different pesticides pyrethrin, bifenthrin, and carbaryl were tested in a biological system. The goal of my project was to discover how varying concentrations of pesticides might affect the viability of Artemia salina, or brine shrimp. I also exposed the pesticides to weather to monitor degradation due to light or temperature. A. salina was used because brine shrimp are both highly susceptible to changes in the environment and important to the ecosystem. Methods/Materials A. salina was cultured in artificial sea water and used in the assay on day four of development. The brine shrimp were first incubated with increasing concentrations of insecticide in a 96-well plate with eight replicate wells. I then developed my own method of assessment, using an overhead projector and at least 10 Artemia in each of 16 petri dishes. In this way I could view all results simultaneously by projecting the Artemia images on a wall continuously. The Artemia were observed at various time intervals until at least half from each group were dead. The times of death were recorded. Results Data generated from the bioassay indicated the method was reliable, as the standard deviation was small (<15%). The assay was able to detect differences between the degraded pesticide toxicity, as well as the increased susceptibility of older Artemia to pesticides. Based on the results, when all three insecticides were compared, pyrethrins seemed to have the greatest adverse effect on A. salina viability. The bifenthrin compounds also seemed to resist biodegradation most. Conclusions/Discussion The results of this study support the hypothesis that pesticide toxicity and potency can be quantified using an Artemia salina bioassay. Artemia mortality depended greatly on the pesticide tested, which indicated that some pesticides were more toxic than others. The differences found between pesticides after exposure to the environment indicated this assay could be useful in distinguishing between environmentally ''friendly'' and more persistent toxins.

Awards (1)

• First Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2007 Pharmacology/ Toxicology · Entry J1530

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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