Sub-chronic oral toxicity of acetamiprid in Wistar rats

Abstract

Acetamiprid is a neoncotinoid insecticide that acts as an agonist to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor used as insecticide in crops and to control fleas on dogs and cats. The objectives of this study are (1) to evaluate the sub-chronic toxicity of orally administered acetamiprid, (2) to estimate the tissue residue levels and (3) to assess the reactive oxygen species induction in Wistar rats. Clinical signs of toxicity and changes in the haematological parameters were not observed in the acetamiprid-treated groups. Biochemically, increases in the levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, cholesterol and decreases in body weight, feed consumption, reduced glutathione, catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and AchE were observed. Lipid peroxidation was increased in liver and kidney. Acetamiprid residues persisted in liver, kidney, spleen, muscles, brain, fat and histopathology revealed lesions in the liver. The no observable adverse effect level of acetamiprid was found to be ≤55 mg/kg body weight.

Keywords:

• neonicotinoids
• toxicity
• tissue residues
• reactive oxygen species
• lipid peroxidation
• reduced glutathione
• catalase
• superoxide dismutase
• glutathione peroxidase and rats

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Aruna Singh for the manuscript review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge SASTRA University for the funding support in the form of Prof T.R. Rajagopalan research fund.