H. Dabrowska et al., DIETARY UPTAKE EFFICIENCY OF HCBP IN CHANNEL CATFISH - THE EFFECT OF FISH CONTAMINANT BODY BURDEN, Environmental toxicology and chemistry, 15(5), 1996, pp. 746-749
Groups of juvenile channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) were exposed
for 10 days to control or contaminated sediment, spiked with C-14-hexa
chlorobiphenyl (HCBP, 130 mu g . kg(-1) dry weight), in order to estab
lish a known body burden. At the completion of that exposure, subsampl
es of fish were taken for HCBP analysis and the remaining fish were tr
ansferred to clean media. Each group transferred to clean media was th
en divided into two subgroups and offered either control or contaminat
ed diet for 4 weeks. The contaminated diet (Tubifex worms) was spiked
with C-14-HCBP (16.6 mu g . kg(-1) wet weight). Feeding rates of rubif
ex were quantified as were fish growth rates and lipid levels. Fish (f
ive specimens) were collected at the beginning of the dietary exposure
and after 10, 20, and 30 days of exposure. Average individual growth
rate constants were similar in all fish groups and ranged from 0.005 d
(-1) to 0.007 d(-1). Both fish groups fed contaminated Tubifex accumul
ated HCBP in an apparent linear fashion over the study period. The bio
accumulation factors (BAFs) were 1.38 and 1.66 for accumulation from s
ediment and uptake from food, respectively. The dietary uptake efficie
ncy for HCBP was found not to be affected by contaminant present in th
e fish body.