In Vivo Investigation of Dietary Exposure to 5 Pesticides

Preface

The studies presented in this report were performed at the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition. The studies were financed by The Danish Environmental Protection Agency. In the period from 2000-2003 two in vivo dietary exposure studies were performed as repeated dose 28 days oral toxicity studies in rats. A dose-response study with the pesticide chlorpyrifos and a combined exposure study with the pesticides alphacypermethrin, bromopropylate, carbendazim, chlorpyrifos and mancozeb were performed.

Animal studies, clinical observations, food and- and water consumption, behavioural- and functional tests were performed by Grethe Østergaard and Otto Meyer at Department of Toxicology, Section for Biology. Euthenization, macroscopic- and microscopic pathology was performed by Ole Ladefoged and Helene Jacobsen at Department of Toxicology, Section for Pathology. Henrik Frandsen and Henrik Rye Lam at Department of Biochemical and Molecular Toxicology performed analysis of plasma- and brain acetylcholinesterase activity. Mette Erecius Poulsen at Department of Chemical Contaminants measured pesticide content in diets and plasma.

We wish to thank Annette Landin, Joan Frandsen, Merete Bothoft Ludwigsen, Inge Schröder, Sabiha El Halimi and Ulla El-Baroudy for their skilful technical assistance. Malene Schrøder Andersson is acknowledged for critical proofreading. Jens Ting Mortensen at Leo-Pharma is acknowledged for providing technical assistance and equipment for measuring blood parameters.

We wish to thank the expert panel for evaluation and discussion of the experimental design and results. The expert panel consisted of Karl-Heinz Cohr from Danish Toxicology Centre, Sven Edelfors from Department of Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, Christian Friis from Department of Pharmacology and Pathobiology, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Christina Ihlemann and Jørn Kirkegaard from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.