Mac M J, Edsall C C
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fisheries Research Center-Great Lakes, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
J Toxicol Environ Health. 1991 Aug;33(4):375-94. doi: 10.1080/15287399109531536.
Epidemiological criteria were used to examine the influence of environmental contamination on reproductive success of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Most of the information was obtained from lake trout eggs collected in southeastern Lake Michigan and reared in the laboratory. Two separate end points that measure reproductive success--egg hatchability and fry survival--were used in the evaluation. Strong evidence for maternally derived polychlorinated biphenyls causing reduced egg hatchability were observed for the time order, strength of association, and coherence criteria. Equally strong evidence for organic environmental contaminants, also of maternal origin, causing a swim-up fry mortality syndrome were presented for the strength of association, specificity, replication, and coherence criteria. The epidemiological approach for demonstrating cause-and-effect relations was useful because of the difficulty in demonstrating definite proof of causality between specific environmental contaminants and reproductive dysfunction in feral fish.
采用流行病学标准来研究环境污染对劳伦森五大湖湖鳟（Salvelinus namaycush）繁殖成功率的影响。大部分信息取自密歇根湖东南部采集并在实验室饲养的湖鳟鱼卵。评估中使用了两个衡量繁殖成功率的独立终点——鱼卵孵化率和鱼苗存活率。对于母源多氯联苯导致鱼卵孵化率降低，在时间顺序、关联强度和一致性标准方面观察到了有力证据。对于同样源自母体的有机环境污染物导致上浮期鱼苗死亡综合征，在关联强度、特异性、重复性和一致性标准方面也给出了同样有力的证据。由于难以确凿证明特定环境污染物与野生鱼类生殖功能障碍之间存在因果关系，因此用于证明因果关系的流行病学方法很有用。
