Comparative toxicity of cis-cypermethrin in rainbow trout, frog, mouse, and quail.

The synthetic alpha-cyano-phenoxybenzyl-containing pyrethroid insecticides act on the CNS of vertebrates and show a species-selective toxicity in the order fish greater than amphibians much greater than mammals greater than birds. Concentrations of [14C]cis-cypermethrin in the brains of representative members of each of these classes of chordates were measured at toxic signs (an onset of hyperactivity followed by seizures and loss of balance/equilibrium) as an indicator of target organ sensitivity. The concentration of cis-cypermethrin in brain, associated with toxic signs, in micrograms per gram (mean +/- SE) as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography was 0.08 +/- 0.03 (frog), 0.23 +/- 0.05 (trout), 1.71 +/- 0.33 (mouse), and 3.94 +/- 0.88 (quail). Trout brain was equally sensitive to the cis and trans isomers of cypermethrin. In both mouse and quail, some 90% of the radioactivity in the brain was parent pyrethroid. Trout and frog, however, afforded only 56 and 32%, respectively, of the brain 14C as cypermethrin, with the remaining radioactivity in both extractable and nonextractable metabolites, including 4'-hydroxy-cis-cypermethrin, which is potentially neuroactive. Following oral administration, cis-cypermethrin was readily absorbed and metabolized by quail. Intestinal uptake was far less rapid in trout and mouse, with unchanged cypermethrin dispersed in secreted bile, being readily eliminated from the intestines of fish. The uptake and metabolism of cis-cypermethrin and the brain sensitivities of these animals to the pyrethroid account for the observed differences in acute toxicity.