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Environ Sci Pollut Res (2015) 22:25662573 DOI 10.1007/s11356-014-3497-0
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Toxicity of anthelmintic drugs (fenbendazole and flubendazole) to aquatic organisms
Marta Wagil & Anna Biak-Bieliska & Alan Puckowski & Katarzyna Wychodnik &
Joanna Maszkowska & Ewa Mulkiewicz & Jolanta Kumirska & Piotr Stepnowski &
Stefan Stolte
Received: 23 March 2014 /Accepted: 20 August 2014 /Published online: 6 September 2014 # The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract Flubendazole (FLU) and fenbendazole (FEN) belong to benzimidazolespharmaceuticals widely used in veterinary and human medicine for the treatment of intestinal parasites as well as for the treatment of systemic worm infections. In recent years, usage of these drugs increased, which resulted in a larger contamination of the environment and possible negative effects on biota. Hence, in our research, we investigated an aquatic ecotoxicity of these pharmaceuticals towards: marine bacteria (Vibrio fischeri), green algae (Scenedesmus vacuolatus), duck-weed (Lemna minor) and crustacean (Daphnia magna). Ecotoxicity tests were combined with chemical analysis in order to investigate the actual exposure concentration of the compounds used in the experiment as well as to stability and adsorption studies. As a result, study evaluating sensitivity of different aquatic organisms to these compounds and new ecotoxicological data is presented. The strongest negative impact of FLU and FEN was observed to D. magna.
Keywords Ecotoxicity . Flubendazole . Fenbendazole .
Aquatic species . Anthelmintic drugs . Benzimidazoles
Introduction
Flubendazole (FLU) and fenbendazole (FEN)belonging to benzimidazoles groupare anthelmintic drugs widely used in veterinary medicine in order to treat diseases in agriculture and aquaculture and also in human medicine (Danaher et al. 2006). Being excreted from the body with faeces and urine, they reach environment via different routes. According to literature, residues of FLU were found in the leachate from agricultural manure to drainage waters reaching values of up to 300 ng L1 (Weiss et al. 2008) as well as in influent (19.989.7 g L1) and effluent (55.0671.0 ng L1) wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry (Van De Steene and Lambert 2008). Moreover, they were also detected in the surface waters (the Llobregat River, Spain) at the concentrations up to 1.32 ng L1 (Zrni et al. 2014). Hence, these compounds as well as other pharmaceuticals have been classified as emerging environmental contaminants for almost...