Eritroleucometria, bioquímica plasmática e sérica e histopatologia de pombas (Zenaida auriculata) submetidas à intoxicação experimental com metamidofós: validade da espécie como indicador de qualidade ambiental

Abstract

Birds, especially the sedentary ones, have been used to evaluate the quality of the environment where they belong, proving to be valuable bioindicators. The Eared Dove, Zenaida auriculata, can have a promising utility since it spoils farmings where several agriculture defensives are used, such as the organophosphate compounds. However, there are no data available in the literature about the damage caused by this sort of chemical product. The goal of this study was to examine the feasibility of using the Eared Dove, Zenaida auriculata, as a bioindicator of environmental quality by the analysis of the data on erythroleucometry, seric biochemistry and histopathology. Therefore, two groups were compared, one having 16 animals, and orally intoxicated with methamidophos in 8mg/kg. Another group, with 8 animals, received only the vehicle (saline). All the animals were free and were captured in the city of Jaboticabal, in Sao Paulo State. All the control animals were sacrificed in the same date and their data were used as a normality pattern. The intoxicated ones were observed for 21 days and spread in 8 groups of two birds each. The first one was sacrificed 12 hours after the intoxication and the rest of them every 3 days. The data obtained and the relations between them showed that Zenaida auriculata is not a valid biological model for indicating the presence of organophosphate compounds in the environment.