Fox G A
Canadian Wildlife Service, National Wildlife Research Centre, Hull, Quebec, Canada.
Environ Health Perspect. 2001 Dec;109 Suppl 6(Suppl 6):853-61. doi: 10.1289/ehp.01109s6853.
There is no existing formal, long-term program for gathering evidence of the incidence and severity of the health effects of toxic substances in wildlife. However, research-based studies of bald eagles, herring gulls, night herons, tree swallows, snapping turtles, mink, and beluga over the past 30 years have revealed a broad spectrum of health effects in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin including thyroid and other endocrine disorders, metabolic diseases, altered immune function, reproductive impairment, developmental toxicity, genotoxicity, and cancer. These effects occurred most often and were most severe in the most contaminated sites (Green Bay, Saginaw Bay, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence estuary, and more recently, Lake Erie), some of which are International Joint Commission-designated Areas of Concern (AOCs). In all cases, a strong argument can be made for an environmental etiology, and in many cases for the involvement of persistent organic pollutants, particularly polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzo-(italic)p(/italic)-dioxins, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. For some, the association with particular contaminants is consistent with controlled studies, and in some, dose-response relationships were documented. The biologic significance of these health impairments to the affected species is currently unclear, but they resemble those observed with increased incidence in human subpopulations in one or more AOCs. Formalizing health effects monitoring of sentinel wildlife species by the parties to the Canada-USA Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement is required. This would facilitate the optimal use of sentinel wildlife health data in a larger, epidemiologic weight-of-evidence context upon which to base decisions and policies regarding the effects of chemical exposures on human populations.
目前没有正式的长期计划来收集野生动物接触有毒物质后健康影响的发生率和严重程度的证据。然而，过去30年对白头海雕、银鸥、夜鹭、树燕、鳄龟、水貂和白鲸的基于研究的调查揭示了五大湖 - 圣劳伦斯河流域存在广泛的健康影响，包括甲状腺及其他内分泌紊乱、代谢疾病、免疫功能改变、生殖损伤、发育毒性、遗传毒性和癌症。这些影响在污染最严重的地区（格林湾、萨吉诺湾、安大略湖、圣劳伦斯河口，以及最近的伊利湖）出现得最为频繁且最为严重，其中一些是国际联合委员会指定的关注区域（AOCs）。在所有情况下，都有充分理由认为存在环境病因，而且在许多情况下，认为持久性有机污染物尤其是多氯联苯、多氯二苯并 - 对 - 二恶英和多环芳烃参与其中。对于一些情况，与特定污染物的关联与对照研究一致，并且在一些情况下记录了剂量 - 反应关系。目前尚不清楚这些健康损害对受影响物种的生物学意义，但它们与在一个或多个AOCs中人类亚群体中观察到的发病率增加情况相似。需要由《加拿大 - 美国五大湖水质量协定》的各方对哨兵野生动物物种的健康影响监测进行规范。这将有助于在更大的、基于证据权重的流行病学背景下优化利用哨兵野生动物健康数据，以此为基础制定有关化学物质暴露对人类影响的决策和政策。
