History of wildlife toxicology

The field of wildlife toxicology can be traced to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Initial reports included unintentional poisoning of birds from ingestion of spent lead shot and predator control agents, alkali poisoning of waterbirds, and die-offs from maritime oil spills. With the advent of synthetic pesticides in the 1930s and 1940s, effects of DDT and other pesticides were investigated in free-ranging and captive wildlife. In response to research findings in the US and UK, and the publication of Silent Spring in 1962, public debate on the hazards of pollutants arose and national contaminant monitoring programs were initiated. Shortly thereafter, population-level effects of DDT on raptorial and fish-eating birds were documented, and effects on other species (e.g., bats) were suspected. Realization of the global nature of organochlorine pesticide contamination, and the discovery of PCBs in environmental samples, launched long-range studies in birds and mammals. With the birth of ecotoxicology in 1969 and the establishment of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in 1979, an international infrastructure began to emerge. In the 1980s, heavy metal pollution related to mining and smelting, agrichemical practices and non-target effects, selenium toxicosis, and disasters such as Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez dominated the field. Biomarker development, endocrine disruption, population modeling, and studies with amphibians and reptiles were major issues of the 1990s. With the turn of the century, there was interest in new and emerging compounds (pharmaceuticals, flame retardants, surfactants), and potential population-level effects of some compounds. Based upon its history, wildlife toxicology is driven by chemical use and misuse, ecological disasters, and pollution-related events affecting humans. Current challenges include the need to more thoroughly estimate and predict exposure and effects of chemical-related anthropogenic activities on wildlife and their supporting habitat.

[1]  R. Huggett,et al.  Biomarkers: Biochemical, Physiological, and Histological Markers of Anthropogenic Stress , 1992 .

[2]  C. Bridges.  ECOTOXICOLOGY OF AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES , 2002, Copeia.

[3]  E. T. Laroe,et al.  Our living resources , 1995 .

[4]  R. Hollingworth,et al.  Silent spring revisited , 1988 .

[5]  S. Jensen,et al.  DDT and PCB in Marine Animals from Swedish Waters , 1969, Nature.

[6]  D. Hoffman.  Handbook of Ecotoxicology , 1995 .

[7]  E. Odum.  Fundamentals of ecology , 1972 .

[8]  R Truhaut,et al.  Ecotoxicology: objectives, principles and perspectives. , 1977, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.

[9]  R. F. Shore,et al.  Ecotoxicology of wild mammals , 2000 .

[10]  N. Hotchkiss,et al.  Effects on forest birds of DDT used for gypsy moth control in Pennsylvania , 1946 .

[11]  J. R. Newman.  Effects of industrial air pollution on wildlife , 1979 .

[12]  S. Zylstra.  A new program for biomonitoring status and trends in the environment , 1994 .

[13]  C. D. Lundholm,et al.  DDE-induced eggshell thinning in birds: effects of p,p'-DDE on the calcium and prostaglandin metabolism of the eggshell gland. , 1997, Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part C, Pharmacology, toxicology & endocrinology.

[14]  A. K. Fisher.  REPORT ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF THE DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION OF 1891, COMPRISING NOTES ON THE BIRDS OBSERVED IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, SOUTHERN NEVADA, AND PARTS OF ARIZONA AND UTAH , 1893 .

[15]  Kathleen A. Patnode,et al.  Environmental Contaminants in Wildlife: Interpreting Tissue Concentrations , 1997 .

[16]  S. Hennes,et al.  Bald eagles and waterfowl: The lead shot connection , 1983 .

[17]  Pesticides and nature conservation : the British experience, 1950-1975 , 1985 .

[18]  L. N. Locke,et al.  Noninfectious Diseases of Wildlife , 1999 .

[19]  D. A. Ratcliffe,et al.  Decrease in Eggshell Weight in Certain Birds of Prey , 1967, Nature.

[20]  Robert I. Krieger,et al.  HANDBOOK OF PESTICIDE TOXICOLOGY , 2001 .

[21]  L. Blus.  DDT, DDD and DDE in Birds , 2011 .

[22]  M. Harada,et al.  Mercury in feathers of wild birds from the mercury-polluted area along the shore of the Shiranui Sea, Japan. , 1984, The Science of the total environment.

[23]  R. Heath,et al.  Comparative dietary toxicities of pesticides to birds , 1972 .

[24]  R. Norstrom,et al.  Geographical distribution (2000) and temporal trends (1981-2000) of brominated diphenyl ethers in Great Lakes hewing gull eggs. , 2002, Environmental science & technology.

[25]  R. Ringer,et al.  Current status of PCB toxicity to mink, and effect on their reproduction , 1977, Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[26]  N. Sotherton,et al.  Indirect Effects of Pesticides on Farmland Wildlife , 2002 .

[27]  R. Heath,et al.  Marked DDE Impairment of Mallard Reproduction in Controlled Studies , 1969, Nature.

[28]  J. Vos,et al.  Toxicology of marine mammals , 2002 .

[29]  W A Bowles,et al.  Acute oral toxicity and repellency of 933 chemicals to house and deer mice , 1985, Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[30]  J. H. Bowles.  Lead poisoning in ducks , 1908 .

[31]  Lawrence M. Smith,et al.  Microcontaminants and reproductive impairment of the Forster's tern on Green Bay, Lake Michigan-1983 , 1989, Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[32]  C. Henny.  Effects Of Mining Lead On Birds: A Case History At Coeur D‚Äôalene Basin, Idaho , 2002 .

[33]  G. Mangan,et al.  DDT vs. wildlife; relationships between quantities ingested, toxic effects and tissue storage. , 1955, Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. American Pharmaceutical Association.

[34]  R. Heath,et al.  Lethal Dietary Toxicities of Environmental Pollutants to Birds , 1975 .

[35]  J. Witt.  Pesticide Toxicity, Effects of Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Insecticides upon Quail and Pheasants , 1955 .

[36]  C. J. Schmitt,et al.  Persistent environmental contaminants in fish and wildlife , 1995 .

[37]  R. B. Clark.  Marine Pollution and Sea Life , 1973 .

[38]  Thomas J. O’Shea and Shinsuke Tanabe.  Persistent ocean contaminants and marine mammals: a retrospective overview , 2002 .

[39]  Atsuko Yamaguchi,et al.  Epidemiologic study on Yusho, a Poisoning Caused by Ingestion of Rice Oil Contaminated with a Commercial Brand of Polychlorinated Biphenyls* , 1972, Environmental health perspectives.

[40]  R. Baker,et al.  Growing Up with Chernobyl , 2006 .

[41]  R. T. Giulio,et al.  Interconnections between human and ecosystem health , 1996 .

[42]  J. Thompson,et al.  Isolation of heavy metal binding proteins from marine vertebrates , 1974 .

[43]  C. Grue,et al.  Neurophysiological and Behavioral Changes in Non-Target Wildlife Exposed to Organophosphate and Carbamate Pesticides: Thermoregulation, Food Consumption, and Reproduction , 1997 .

[44]  C. Battersby.  Fifteen years on. , 1975, The Medical journal of Australia.

[45]  G. L. Storm,et al.  Ecotoxicological damage from zinc smelting at Palmerton, Pennsylvania , 1995 .

[46]  D. Frear,et al.  Pesticides in the Antarctic. , 1966 .

[47]  D R COBURN,et al.  Phosphorus poisoning in waterfowl. , 1950, Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. American Pharmaceutical Association.

[48]  P. Mineau.  Cholinesterase-inhibiting insecticides : their impact on wildlife and the environment , 1991 .

[49]  J. Sheail.  An Environmental History of Twentieth-Century Britain , 2002 .

[50]  A R Woodward,et al.  Developmental abnormalities of the gonad and abnormal sex hormone concentrations in juvenile alligators from contaminated and control lakes in Florida. , 1994, Environmental health perspectives.

[51]  R. Dhonau,et al.  WATER QUALITY GUIDANCE FOR THE GREAT LAKES SYSTEM , 1993 .

[52]  L. Stickel.  Field studies of a Peromyscus population in an area treated with DDT , 1946 .

[53]  Frank Chapman Bellrose,et al.  Lead poisoning as a mortality factor in waterfowl populations , 1959 .

[54]  S. N. Wiemeyer,et al.  Dieldrin and DDT: Effects on Sparrow Hawk Eggshells and Reproduction , 1969, Science.

[55]  R. Treichler,et al.  Experiments on toxicity of DDT to wildlife , 1946 .

[56]  Aleem Ahmed Khan,et al.  Diclofenac residues as the cause of vulture population decline in Pakistan , 2004, Nature.

[57]  P. Albers.  Petroleum and Individual Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons , 2003 .

[58]  D. Krabbenhoft,et al.  Ecotoxicology of mercury , 2003 .

[59]  E. Hill.  Wildlife toxicology of organophosphorus and carbamate pesticides , 2003 .

[60]  W. Stickel,et al.  Wildlife effects of DDT dust used for tick control on a Texas prairie , 1949 .

[61]  L. Blus,et al.  Logarithmic Relationship of DDE Residues to Eggshell Thinning , 1972, Nature.

[62]  W. Murray.  Pesticides in the Environment and their Effects on Wildlife , 1967 .

[63]  R. Mitchell,et al.  The effects of DDT upon the survival and growth of nestling songbirds , 1953 .

[64]  A. Merklen,et al.  [Lead poisoning]. , 1956, Revue medicale de Nancy.

[65]  Deborah J. Pain,et al.  Lead in the environment , 2003 .

[66]  J. B. Dewitt.  Pesticide Toxicity, Chronic Toxicity to Quail and Pheasants of Some Chlorinated Insecticides , 1956 .

[67]  Dianne Dumanoski,et al.  Our stolen future: are we threatening our fertility, intelligence, and survival? : a scientific detective story , 1998 .

[68]  J. Giesy,et al.  Global distribution of perfluorooctane sulfonate in wildlife. , 2001, Environmental science & technology.

[69]  Gerald T Ankley,et al.  Fifteen years after "Wingspread"--environmental endocrine disrupters and human and wildlife health: where we are today and where we need to go. , 2008, Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology.

[70]  L. N. Locke,et al.  Relative toxicity of lead and selected substitute shot types to game farm mallards , 1967 .

[71]  E. Hankø,et al.  Mercury Poisoning in Swedish Wildlife , 1966 .

[72]  R. Norstrom,et al.  A quarter century of environmental surveillance: The Canadian Wildlife Service's Great Lakes Herring Gull Monitoring Program , 1999 .

[73]  T. Kubiak,et al.  Great Lakes embryo mortality, edema, and deformities syndrome (GLEMEDS) in colonial fish-eating birds: similarity to chick-edema disease. , 1991, Journal of toxicology and environmental health.

[74]  B R Christopher,et al.  FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER , 1999 .

[75]  R. Eisler.  The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Accident: Ecotoxicological Update , 2002 .

[76]  E. Hill,et al.  Lethal Dietary Toxicities of Environmental Contaminants and Pesticides to Coturnix , 1986 .

[77]  L. N. Locke,et al.  Relative toxicity of lead and five proposed substitute shot types to pen-reared mallards , 1968 .

[78]  D. Sparling.  White Phosphorus at Eagle River Flats, Alaska: A Case History of Waterfowl Mortality , 2002 .

[79]  J. Koeman,et al.  Some Preliminary Notes on Residues of Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Insecticides in Birds and Mammals in the Netherlands , 1966 .

[80]  E. Schafer,et al.  The acute oral toxicity, repellency, and hazard potential of 998 chemicals to one or more species of wild and domestic birds , 1983, Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[81]  J J Hickey,et al.  Chlorinated Hydrocarbons and Eggshell Changes in Raptorial and Fish-Eating Birds , 1968, Science.

[82]  J. Ludke,et al.  Monitoring fish and wildlife for environmental contaminants: The National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program , 1986 .