Abstract

MOREIRA TUERLINCKX, Sandro; HAHN DELFIM, Daniel; KALIL HUBER, Ana Cláudia  and  ARAUJO GAMBOA MORSELLI, Tânia Beatriz. Evaluation of glutatione-s-transferase enzyme activity of the earthworm Eisenia foetida exposed to ivermectin. Acta toxicol. argent. [online]. 2018, vol.26, n.2, pp.71-82. ISSN 1851-3743.

Many types of drugs are used in veterinary medicine to control and improve animal health through therapeutic and prophylactic treatments. The disadvantage of this practice is that pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are released into the environment and may influence soil fauna through manure excretion and subsequent application to agricultural field. The avermectins are extensively and increasingly used in veterinary medicine and agriculture. Previous studies have shown that ivermectin (IVM), a widely used parasiticide, is very toxic to many non-target invertebrate species. In view of the little metabolism and most of the ivermectin dose given to the animal is excreted, relatively unaltered, primarily in the feces and the scarcity of data on toxicity to soil invertebrates, acute and chronic effects of the parasiticide on the glutatione-s-transferase (GST) of the oligochaete Eisenia foetida were investigated. Earthworms of Eisenia foetida were exposed to IVM at 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100 mg kg-1 concentrations; samples were taken at days 7, 14, and 28 exposure for determination of GST activities. The results showed that duration of the exposure significantly changed the effects of the investigated parasiticide on the GST activity. Namely, after the initial decrease, the prolongation of exposure caused the induction of the GST activity. With increasing IVM concentration, GST activities were inhibited significantly after 7 days of the exposure. In particular, the inhibition effect was significant at the higher treatment levels (10, 50 and 100 mg kg-1). On the other hand, at 14 and 28 days were observed inductions of enzyme activity. GST activity can be regarded as sensitive parameter for evaluating the toxicity of ivermectin to earthworms.

Keywords : Avermectins; Biochemical marker; Toxicity; Earthworms.

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