Rd. Handy et Ws. Penrice, THE INFLUENCE OF HIGH ORAL DOSES OF MERCURIC-CHLORIDE ON ORGAN TOXICANT CONCENTRATIONS AND HISTOPATHOLOGY IN RAINBOW-TROUT, ONCORHYNCHUS-MYKISS, Comparative biochemistry and physiology. C. Comparative pharmacologyand toxicology, 106(3), 1993, pp. 717-724
1. Trout were fed a pellet diet for 42 d contaminated with mercuric ch
loride to provide a mercury concentration of 10 g metal/kg dry weight
of food. 2. Sloughing of the gut epithelium and food regurgitation occ
urred in the last 3 weeks of the study, but no mortalities were observ
ed. 3. The kidney showed increased numbers of melano-macrophages, but
gill pathology was notably absent. 4. Mercury accumulated in the gill,
liver, kidney, muscle and mucus. The highest toxicant concentrations
were recorded in the gill and liver, while contamination in the muscle
was lower than most tissues examined. 5. Fish excreted mercury via th
e body surface mucus, a previously unknown route of mercury clearance.
Mucus mercury content correlated positively with whole body burdens,
suggesting mucus toxicant levels may be used to identify mercury conta
mination in live fish.