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Acute toxicity of the synthetic
pyrethroid pesticide fenvalerate to
some air breathing fishes
Madhuban Datta (Bhattacharya)
a
& Anilava Kaviraj
a
a
Department of Zoology, University of Kalyani, Kalyani-741235,
West Bengal, India
Available online: 30 Sep 2011
To cite this article: Madhuban Datta (Bhattacharya) & Anilava Kaviraj (2011): Acute toxicity
of the synthetic pyrethroid pesticide fenvalerate to some air breathing fishes, Toxicological &
Environmental Chemistry, 93:10, 2034-2039
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02772248.2011.626416
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Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry
Vol. 93, No. 10, December 2011, 20342039
Acute toxicity of the synthetic pyrethroid pesticide fenvalerate to some air
breathing fishes
Madhuban Datta (Bhattacharya)
*
y and Anilava Kaviraj
Department of Zoology, University of Kalyani, Kalyani-741235, West Bengal, India
(Received 6 February 2011; final version received 16 September 2011)
Lethal concentrations (LC
50
) of a synthetic pyrethroid pesticide, fenvalerate, for
three species of air breathing fish Clarias batrachus, Channa punctatus and
Heteropneustes fossilis were determined under water and acetone soluble
condition in the laboratory using the static bioassay procedure of the American
Public Health Association (APHA,1995). Acetone soluble fenvalerate was found
more toxic than the water-soluble fenvalerate irrespective of species and exposure
periods. The LC
50
value upon 96 days exposure to acetone soluble fenvalerate
for C. batrachus, Channa C. punctatus and Heteropneustes H. fossilis were 1.35,
1.0 and 0.65 mg L
1
, respectively. It is concluded from the present study that
fenvalerate is highly toxic even to the hardy air breathing fishes and the pesticide,
when dissolved in water, remains photostable and active to render toxicity for
long duration.
Keywords: pyrethroid; fenvalerate; LC
50
; air breathing fish; solvent
Introduction
Toxicity of synthetic pyrethroid pesticide depends upon their structure, stereochemistry
and formulations (Polat et al. 2002; Datta and Kaviraj 2003; Saha and Kaviraj 2008).
Fenvalerate is a cyanophenoxybenzyl non-cyclopropanoid pyrethroid. The Environmental
Protection Agency of the United States classifies fenvalerate products as toxicity class II
(I most toxic, IVleast toxic). In India, fenvalerate is registered for use on a wide array
of crops including cotton, tobacco plants, soybeans, corn, vegetables, apples, peaches,
pears and nuts, as termiticide and insect repellent (Madan et al. 2000). Fenvalerate enters
freshwater aquatic environments as runoff from agricultural plots, as drift from forest-
spray activities, and from direct spraying of water bodies. The pesticide has been found to
be highly toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates (Tilak et al. 2001; Tandon et al. 2005).
The objective of this study was to evaluate the acute toxicity of fenvalerate to three air
breathing fish species, namely Clarias batrachus, Channa punctatus and Heteropneustes
fossilis. These fish possess air breathing organs; they inhabit areas like ditches, swamps,
marshes and small ponds that in turn act as the accumulation sites of pesticides applied in
agricultural fields. Therefore, these fish are considered to be hardy and resistant to adverse
ecological conditions. Since fenvalerate is used as both acetone and aqueous solution,
*Corresponding author. Email: madhuban@indiatimes.com; madhubanb@gmail.com
yPresent address: Nabadwip Vidyasagar College, Nabadwip, Nadia, W.B., India.
ISSN 02772248 print/ISSN 10290486 online
2011 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02772248.2011.626416
http://www.tandfonline.com
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bioassays were made with both water soluble from of fenvalerate and acetone soluble form
of fenvalerate.
Materials and methods
Adult specimens of C. batrachus (mean weight 7.1 g 1.2; mean length 8.1 0.5),
C. punctatus (mean weight 5.3 g 0.8; mean length 8.2 0.4) and H. fossilis (mean weight
5.7 g 0.9; mean length 5.6 0.9) were procured from local hatcheries and were stocked in
30 L glass aquaria. The fish were acclimatized to this condition in laboratory for 96192 h
before use. The fish were fed a diet prepared from rice bran, wheat flour, mustard oil cake,
fishmeal and vitamin-mineral mixture (92% dry matter and 8% moisture with the
principal nutrients such as crude protein and crude lipid being 30.5% and 5.1% of dry
matter, respectively) ad libitum during acclimatization. Emulsified concentrate of
fenvalerate ((RS)-alpha-cyano-3-phenoxybenzyl (RS)-2 -(4-chlorophenyl)-3-methyl-buty-
rate) with 20% active ingredient was procured from Rallis India Ltd, Mumbai (TATAfen
20 E). Two different stock solutions of fenvalerate were prepared for the bioassay, one by
dissolving the product in water and another in acetone. Different concentrations used for
both solutions of fenvalerate are given in Table 1. Two sets of control were used in the
bioassays, one with dilution water as the medium and another with 0.5 mL acetone/L
water as the medium, to match water and acetone soluble fenvalerate, respectively.
Static bioassays, following the method of APHA (1995), were conducted in 15 L glass
aquaria each containing 3 L of nonchlorinated tap water (pH: 8.00 0.04, free CO
2
:
6.0 0.3 mg L
1
, dissolved oxygen: 6.2 0.2 mg L
1
, alkalinity: 75.2 3.8 mg L
1
as
CaCO
3
, hardness: 260 11 mg L
1
as CaCO
3
) and three fish. The aquaria were arranged
Table 1. Concentrations of fenvalerate used under different solvent
conditions.
Concentration of fenvalerate (mg L
1
)
Solvents C. batrachus C. punctatus H. fossilis
Water 0.0 (WC) 0.0 (WC) 0.0 (WC)
2.0 2.0 0.7
2.5 2.5 1.0
3.0 3.0 2.0
4.0 4.0 3.0
5.0 5.0 4.0
5.5 6.0 5.0
6.0 6.5 6.0
Acetone 0.0 (SC) 0.0 (SC) 0.0 (SC)
0.6 0.5 0.5
0.8 0.8 0.6
1.2 1.0 0.7
1.5 1.5 0.9
2.0 2.0 1.0
2.5 3.0 1.2
3.0 3.5 1.4
4.0 4.0
Note: WCWater control; SCSolvent control (0.5 mL acetone/L).
Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry 2035
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in randomized block design so that there were three replicates for each of the
concentration and control tested. A temperature of 29.5 0.4

C was maintained in the

test medium during the experiments. Mortality and the behavioural changes of the test
animals were recorded every 24 h, and dead animals, if any were removed. No food was
provided during the bioassay to avoid interference of excretory products of fish with the
test chemical. The median lethal concentration (LC
50
) with 95% confidence limit for
fenvalerate was estimated for 24, 48, 72 and 96 h by probit analysis (Finney 1971).
Duncans multiple range test was employed for comparing mean mortality values, after
estimating the residual variance by repeated measures of ANOVA (Winner 1971) for arc
sine transformed mortality data (dead individuals/initial number of individuals). Time of
exposure was the repeated measure factor while treatment (concentrations and controls)
was the second factor. In addition, LC
50
values were compared by the method of APHA
(1995).
Results and discussion
LC
50
values of water-soluble and acetone-soluble fenvalerate for the test fishes have been
summarized in Tables 2 and 3, respectively. H. fossilis was found to be the most susceptible
species followed by C. punctatus and C. batrachus under both solubility conditions. The
results indicated that acetone soluble fenvalerate, irrespective of species and exposure
period, was more toxic than the water soluble one. The LC
50
value of water-soluble
fenvalerate did not show any significant difference between hours of exposure. But, the
LC
50
values of acetone soluble fenvalerate varied significantly between the exposure
periods. For C. batrachus and C. punctatus the 24 h LC
50
value of acetone-soluble
fenvalerate did not vary significantly from 48 h; however, it varied significantly from that
of 72 h and 96 h. Between other exposure periods the LC
50
value of acetone soluble
fenvalerate did not show any significant variation. For H. fossilis there was no significant
difference of the LC
50
value of acetone-soluble fenvalerate between any exposure period
except between 24 and 96 h. Duncans multiple range test carried to compare mean
mortality between concentrations of fenvalerate showed that minimum effective concen-
tration that produced significant mortality from control was 2.5 and 1.2 mg L
1
(C. batrachus); 1.0 and 0.7 mg L
1
(H. fossilis); 2.5 and 0.87 mg L
1
(C. punctatus) for
water-soluble and acetone-soluble fenvalerate respectively. The behavioural changes of the
fish exposed to lethal concentrations of fenvalerate (both water and acetone soluble) were
more or less similar irrespective of the species. These included rapid and erratic swimming,
Table 2. LC
50
values (mg L
1
) with 95% confidence limits (in parentheses)
of fenvalerate dissolved in water.
Exposure time (h) C. batrachus C. punctatus H. fossilis
24 3.88 3.50 2.86
(3.34.4) (3.144.21) (2.143.84)
48 3.42 3.33 2.23
(2.93.9) (2.83.9) (1.692.94)
72 3.30 3.12 1.78
(2.83.8) (2.723.57) (1.222.59)
96 3.19 2.93 1.78
(2.73.6) (2.453.49) (1.222.59)
2036 M. Datta and A. Kaviraj
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tremors, partial or complete loss of equilibrium, gulping respiration and increased
surfacing initially. Responses became more acute with increasing concentrations of
fenvalerate. The fishes became lethargic before death.
LC
50
values of fenvalerate determined in the present study (1.78 to 3.88 mg L
1
for the
aqueous solution and 0.65 to 2.39 for the acetone solution) indicate that the pesticide is
highly toxic even to the air breathing fishes. Fenvalerate has already been marked as
supertoxic to fish (Scott et al. 1987) because of its low LC
50
value (510 mg L
1
) for most
of the species tested so far.
The 2496 h LC
50
values of C. batrachus and C. punctatus found in the present
investigation are comparable to the 48 and 96 h LC
50
values of fathead minnow (Bradbury
et al. 1987; Bradbury and Coats 1989); 96 h LC
50
value of African catfish, Mystus vittatus
(Verma et al. 1981) and 96 h LC
50
value of Gulf toad fish (Mayer 1987), while the LC
50
values for H. fossilis found in the present investigation are comparable to the 48 h LC
50
value of Lepomis macrochirus (Dyer et al. 1989) and 96 h LC
50
value of Mugil cephalus
(Mayer 1987). 96 h LC
50
value of fenvalerate for the carp Catla catla (6 mg L
1
) observed
by Tandon et al. (2005) is higher than any of the LC
50
values determined for the air
breathing fishes in the present investigation.
The present results further indicate that fenvalerate may become more toxic to fish in
the exposed field if it is used as acetone solution in the sources. The general mode of action
of fenvalerate is presumed to bring out changes in sodium ion permeability and
depolarization of the nerve membrane (Eisler 1992). Toxicity is probably due to effects on
both peripheral and central nervous system caused by interference with sodium ion
permeability in stimulated nerve membranes and depolarization of nerve membranes.
It probably accounts for the erratic movements and convulsions shown by the fish exposed
to lethal concentrations of fenvalerate. Fenvalerate also acts as a potent inhibitor of
ATPases (Clark 1982). But exact mechanism of toxicity for the species under study is not
yet known. Although synthetic pyrethroids have been structurally modified to make their
active principle photostable, ambient environmental conditions still profoundly influence
toxicity of these pesticides to fish and other aquatic organisms. Cypermethrin have been
found to become practically non-toxic to air breathing fish H. fossilis after 7 h of light
exposure (Saha and Kaviraj 2009). The LC
50
value of the same pyrethroids did not change
beyond 48 h exposure to common carp, tadpole larva and the crustacean zooplankton
(Saha and Kaviraj 2008). Most of them become inactive after 24 h of exposure to light
rendering LC
50
values unchanged beyond 24 h of exposure. The results of the this revealed
that the LC
50
value of fenvalerate also did not change significantly beyond 24 h of
Table 3. LC
50
(mg L
1
) values with 95% confidence limits (in parentheses)
of fenvalerate dissolved in acetone.
Exposure time (h) C. batrachus C. punctatus H. fossilis
24 2.39 1.81 0.89
(2.052.79) (1.472.2) (0.791.01)
48 1.76 1.33 0.81
(1.452.12) (1.061.68) (0.720.92)
72 1.53 1.23 0.76
(1.261.85) (0.961.59) (0.660.86)
96 1.35 1.02 0.65
(1.091.67) (0.731.41) (0.550.77)
Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry 2037
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exposure when dissolved in water. But the LC
50
value changed up to 72 h for C. batrachus
and C. punctatus and up to 96 h for H. fossilis when dissolved in acetone indicating that the
acetone solution of fenvalerate remain active, photostable and toxic for long duration.
From this study it is concluded that the dosing solutions with only 20% active ingredient
fenvalerate is quite toxic to the air breathing fish studied, and further careful studies with
the technical grade fenvalerate are required to assess its full toxic potentiality.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Head, Department of Zoology, University of Kalyani for providing necessary facilities
for this research.
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