Pesticides impact on protein in fish (<i>Oreochromis mossambicus) </i> tissues

Abstract

Indiscriminate use of agrochemicals to control pests in agriculture to increase the yield of crop causes chemical pollution. The pesticides are extremely toxic to non-target organisms, like fish and affect fish health through impairment of metabolism, sometimes leading to mortality, adversely affecting the complex food-web and population dynamics. In the present study, an attempt has been made to investigate the acute toxicity of organophosphate pesticides (chlorpyrifos and malathion), synthetic pyrethroid pesticides (cypermethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin) and herbicide (buctril) on total protein content of the fish (<i>Oreochromis mossambicus</i>). For this regard fish were treated for 24 and 48 hrs with different concentrations of pesticides. Total protein content in fish tissues were determined by Biuret method. The present study show that total protein content was inhibited in <i> Oreochromis mossambicus </i> after exposure to organophosphate pesticides (chlorpyrifos, malathion), synthetic pyrethroids (lambda-cyhalothrin, malathion) and herbicide (buctril). The levels of total protein content showed decrease for pesticide treated fish in the order of cypermethrin, malathion, chlorpyrifos, lambda-cyhalothrin and buctril respectively at 48 hrs. The present study reports metabolic dysfunction in response to pesticide toxicity in the fish. Pesticide acts as stress inducing agents which affect the functional state of tissues of the exposed organisms.