Survival analysis of African catfish and Nile tilapia briefly exposed to complex pesticide mixtures

Abstract

Abstract Background Pulse exposures are the consequences of the intermittent release of pollutants in the environment. Brief exposure of aquatic organisms to high concentrations of pesticides simultaneously occurs, particularly in small watercourses during high flows. The effects of pulse exposure often include effects occurring during and after the exposure. Despite this, routine toxicity tests procedures often ignore brief exposure scenarios and the role of time in toxicity. We conducted a pulse toxicity test by briefly exposing African catfish and Nile tilapia fingerlings to pesticide mixtures of atrazine, mancozeb, chlorpyrifos, and lambda-cyhalothrin. The study aimed to estimate pesticide mixture interaction in pulse-exposed fish and elucidate the influence of species differences on the response of fish to the pesticide mixture. Results Despite the similarity in fingerlings weight, African catfish had a significantly higher survival probability than Nile tilapia after exposure to atrazine-mancozeb mixture. However, the survival probability of African catfish and Nile tilapia fingerlings were similar after exposure to atrazine-chlorpyrifos, atrazine-lambda cyhalothrin, mancozeb-chlorpyrifos, mancozeb-lambda cyhalothrin, chlorpyrifos-lambda cyhalothrin, and quaternary mixture (p > 0.05). The survival probability of exposed fingerlings was significantly lower for continuous than pulse exposure to the mixtures (p < 0.01). Nevertheless, the survival probability of 60 min of pulse exposure to 13.49 mg/L mancozeb-lambda cyhalothrin was similar to continuous exposure for 96 h. Atrazine-mancozeb, atrazine-chlorpyrifos, atrazine-lambda cyhalothrin, mancozeb-chlorpyrifos, mancozeb-lambda cyhalothrin, and the quaternary pesticide mixture were antagonists in African catfish but not in Nile tilapia. At the same time, chlorpyrifos-lambda-cyhalothrin was antagonistic in Nile tilapia but not African catfish. Conclusions Pesticide mixture interaction was antagonist but specie-dependent. Innate intrinsic and extrinsic deterministic factors and, to a limited extent, stochastic processes may have influenced the survival probability of African catfish, and Nile tilapia pulsed exposed to complex pesticide mixtures. Pulse toxicity assessment using survival analysis is relevant in ecotoxicology as it enables the study of factors that can influence pulse toxicity.