Fenitrothion

Health effects

Fenitrothion at sublethal doses affected the motor movement of marsupials, and at acute dose levels it reduced the energy of birds.

In chronic (low) dose tests, unexpectedly only the lowest concentration (0.011 microgram/liter) of fenitrothion depressed the growth of an algae, though all of the chronic dose levels used were toxic in other ways to the algae.

Just half of fenitrothion's minimally effective dose altered the thyroid structure of a freshwater murrel (the snakehead fish).

Cases of non-specific encephalopathy and fatty visceral changes (Reye's syndrome) in children living in the vicinity of fenitrothion-spraying operations invoked the research described latterly in Science, and originally in The Lancet:

Further study showed that the illness was caused not by fenitrothion itself, but combinations which included the surfactants and the solvent (with or without the pesticide) clearly showed that pretreatment with these chemicals markedly increased the viral lethality in the test mice.

Resistance

In an unusual demonstration of resistance to pesticides, 8% of insects in farm fields were found to carry a symbiotic gut microbe that can metabolize and detoxify fenitrothion; after in-vitro tests showed that the microbe significantly increased the survival of fenitrothion-treated insects.

References

References

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2. (1995). "Exploring QSAR - Hydrophobic, Electronic, and Steric Constants.". American Chemical Society.
3. (1981). "Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology.". John Wiley and Sons.
4. (1992). "Environ Health Criteria 133: Fenitrothion". World Health Organization.
5. "Fenitrothion". National Center for Biotechnology Information.
6. (July 2008). "Fenitrothion, an organophosphate, affects running endurance but not aerobic capacity in fat-tailed dunnarts (Sminthopsis crassicaudata)". Chemosphere.
7. (April 2011). "Fipronil toxicity in northern bobwhite quail Colinus virginianus: reduced feeding behaviour and sulfone metabolite formation". Chemosphere.
8. (November 1996). "Chronic toxicity of fenitrothion to an algae (Nannochloris oculata), a rotifer (Brachionus calyciflorus), and the cladoceran (Daphnia magna)". Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.
9. (1988). "Effect of safe concentrations of some pesticides on thyroid in the freshwater murrel, Channa punctatus: a histopathological study". Environmental Pollution.
10. (June 1976). "Lethal interaction of ubiquitous insecticide carriers with virus". Science.
11. (July 1974). "Insecticide and viral interaction as a cause of fatty visceral changes and encephalopathy in the mouse". Lancet.
12. (1977). "Analysis of an aromatic solvent used in a forest spray program". Chemosphere.
13. (May 2012). "Symbiont-mediated insecticide resistance". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.