REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IN RAINBOW-TROUT FOLLOWING PARENTAL TRANSFER OF 2,3,4,7,8-PENTACHLORODIBENZOFURAN

Brood stock rainbow trout were intraperitoneally injected with corn oi l containing a nominal dose of 0 or 3 mu g [C-14]2,3,4,7.8-pentachloro dibenzofuran (P5CDF)/kg (8.8 nmol/kg). The fish were held on a light c ycle designed to induce spawning Ln months later. Eggs men expressed f rom individual ripe females and divided into two lots. One lot from ea ch control female (F-c) and treated female (F-t) was fertilized by a t reated male (M-t) and the other by a control male (M-t). Radioactivity levels were determined in parental muscle, gonads, eggs, embryos, and fry. Mean concentrations in dorsal muscle tissue were 604 pg/g (1.77 pmol/g) in treated females (F-t) and 868 pg/g (2.54 pmol/g) in treated males. No differences were found between treated and control fish, in fecundity, or in fertilization rates between any of the crosses. Conc entrations of P5CDP in regs at the time of spawning ranged from 68 to 443 pg/g wet weight with a mean concentration (N = 7) of 232 pg/g (0.6 8 pmol/g). Average prehatch mortalities, posthatch survival, or surviv al through swim-up, and the first 21 d of feeding were not different b etween the cross groups. Within the F-t x M-t cross group, fertilizati on mortality, prehatch mortality, and total mortality were significant ly correlated with egg concentrations of P5CDF. Marginal but significa nt increases in the incidence of blue-sac-like disease occurred in the groups from treated females.