Most people today will use some sort of pesticide on their flowers. It is widely practiced because after investing so much time and money into growing beautiful flowers you want to keep them looking beautiful. I mean honestly, there is nothing worse than coming home to find your once beautiful daisies chewed up and spat out by a family of beetles. It is even more common in the agricultural industry to use heavy duty pesticides. The crop farmers want to have the highest yield they can, doesn’t everyone want the most bang for their buck? Most people wouldn’t stop and think twice about what these pesticides might be doing to the environment.
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| Triazine chemical structure |
One of the most popular industrial pesticide used is called ATR, or triazine herbicide. It is so commonly used that if you tested water from runoff, you’d probably find some in it. Since it is so easily found in the environment, what kind of problems does it pose to animals? Many studies have been conducted to combat concerns that it causes problems in the functioning of reproductive organs. There is a wealth of information that shows significant reproductive malfunctions in male small animals. However, there really hasn’t been much research in the female reproductive system. So, that’s where the research team of Lei Qin comes in.
The research team wanted to see if ATR causes similar disruptions of the female reproductive system as it does to males. They were particularly interested in the effects ATR has on the hypothalamus and pituitary glands in relation to the ovaries, as well as development of the actual ovary and oviduct. In order to study the biochemical pathway, the team used young European Quails to study. They had four different groups of quails, treated with varying degrees of ATR. One of those four was a control group and they weren’t given any ATR. The team watched the birds and recorded their weight, as well as visible signs that they were being affected by the pesticide. Once the study was over the research team dissected out the birds hypothalamus and pituitary glands, ovary, and oviduct. They also collected blood from the heart to analyze the levels of hormones of interest.
Lei Qin and the research team found that the birds who were exposed to a higher concentration of ATR were significantly smaller than the other birds. When the team examined the ovaries of the birds, they found a significant decreased follicles, with disorganized granulosa cells. Along with the deformations, there also showed an increased amount of connective tissue in the tubular gland cells of the oviduct. Follicle stimulating hormone is necessary for a follicle to form during ovulation. Luteinizing hormone and estrogen are also required to release the egg from the follicle to be fertilized. In the ATR treated birds, FSH was elevated and LH and estrogen were decreased. The results were also consistent in the upregulation of of FSH signals in the hypothalamus and pituitary glands.
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| European Quail |
What does all of this highly scientific language mean to us in the real world? It means that these studies showed that this pesticide can have a significant effect on the functioning of female reproductive organs. As it well known, without females there are no eggs, and a vital part of the population. If this pesticide is having such an effect on birds, what is there to say that there won’t be an effect on humans it continues to build up in the environment. It will be imperative for developmental biologists and environmental biologists to work together and figure out the exact chemical pathways this pesticide takes. Especially if humans could possibly be affected if it continues to build up in the water.
References
Qin, Lei, Zheng-Hai Du, Shi-Yong Zhu,
Xue-Nan Li, Nan Li, Jing-Ao Guo, Jin-Long Li, and Ying Zhang. "Atrazine
Triggers Developmental Abnormality of Ovary and Oviduct in Quails
(Coturnix Coturnix Coturnix) via Disruption of
Hypothalamo-pituitary-ovarian Axis." Environmental Pollution 207 (2015): 299-307. Science Direct. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
Triazine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,3,5-Triazine
Quail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_quail
Pesticides, along with many other chemicals have become an increasingly important topic over the last few years. Just look at Onondaga lake! The build up of toxins within the fish made them unsafe for human consumption. I wonder if ATR could cause similar problems as runoff accumulates in our water sources. Great post!
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ReplyDeleteWhile pesticides do cause damage to the environment, getting rid of them is not an option. Sadly, we need pesticides to protect crops. Without them the yield would be very low, something that cannot be afforded, especially with the ever increasing human population. If we intend on feeding everyone, pesticides are a necessity. There are safer ways to deal with pests, but none are as effective. It does not come as a surprise that these chemicals interfere with biological processes, after all that is what they are made for. I agree that chemicals such as ATR should be used sparingly, though I am afraid we are at a point where we cannot turn back. The effects are going to have to be dealt with, sadly, but unless we can find chemicals that target ONLY pest species these chemicals will continue to build up and potentially cause human harm.
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't be more right! There is no way to support our growing population without pesticides. Without them farmers would loose far to much of their yield to pests. Even 'organic' farming isn't as natural as we'd all like to believe it is, there is just a different code for what chemicals can and can't be used to qualify as organic. Some of these chemicals are far worse than the pesticides we had originally wanted to avoid. I learned in one of my classes that "they" are looking into pesticides that deteriorate over time into far less harmful chemicals. I wonder if this is a realistic possibility.
DeleteYes Dan, I definitely agree with you. I think I mentioned that I come from a farming background. I know that we use pesticides on our crops, its impossible not too unless we want beetles to eat them up. I think my point is more towards the factory farm world. I think its more the amount that the CAFO's use that is the real danger to the world.
DeleteIt's interesting how often pesticides are coming up in research studies and how much their harmful effects are impacting our daily lives. While it is true that pesticides have negative implications on the environment; there are some positives that must be taken into account for especially in terms of efficiency. Just curious to to whether or not similar studies were conducted using varying pesticides and if they had similar results? That would be interesting to compare the chemical composition of the pesticides to see what, specifically, is yielding the harmful impacts in modern society. With more and more exposure to pesticides, one can only wonder how long it will take to significantly alter human health.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how often pesticides are coming up in research studies and how much their harmful effects are impacting our daily lives. While it is true that pesticides have negative implications on the environment; there are some positives that must be taken into account for especially in terms of efficiency. Just curious to to whether or not similar studies were conducted using varying pesticides and if they had similar results? That would be interesting to compare the chemical composition of the pesticides to see what, specifically, is yielding the harmful impacts in modern society. With more and more exposure to pesticides, one can only wonder how long it will take to significantly alter human health.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a really good job of tying the scientific research you looked into back to the real world. As the others have stated, pesticides have been growing in popularity not only in the public eye but also in scientific research as well. This study on quails is interesting because ATR had such a varying effect on the female reproductive system between the ovaries, oviducts, hypothalamus, and pituitary gland. You stated how the FSH levels increased with exposure to ATR but also mentioned how the number of follicles in the ovary decreased with exposure. I wonder how these two effects are related, the disorganization of the granulosa cells could possibly be a factor.
ReplyDeleteI hope that with increasing technology, scientists will be able to find a pesticide that is not harmful to all animals, only the ones they are meant to target. Unfortunately we are faced with dealing with these dangerous chemicals until that happens. It is sad to see the effects it has on animals and their habitat and it is only going to get worse. In order to provide for the increasing population, pesticides are a necessary tool. I wonder how these pesticides are affecting other kinds of animals. I also wonder if there are alternative pesticides that could be used and what affect they would have on the environment.
ReplyDeleteI think that unfortunately the pesticide struggle is going to get worse before it gets better. With future research and increasing technology scientists and agriculturists will be testing new methods of riding crops of pests with as little environmental harm as possible. These methods will fail more times than not, only adding to the struggle; this process is necessary in order to find a solution.
DeleteReading some of these blogs we really learn and become more aware of what pesticides are and what they can do to our environment, animals, and our bodies. I cannot believe the drastic effects they have on quails' reproductive systems. If this affects quails' LH and estrogen levels, then maybe our levels of hormones are affected by the use of pesticides. With all of the risk of pesticides it seems that if families can afford it, they should be buying organic food as much as possible to decrease the risk of changing hormone levels etc.
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