Acute toxicity of pesticides in adult and weanling rats.

LD50 values were determined for 57 pesticides administered by the oral or dermal route to adult male and female Sherman rats. Thirty-six of the chemicals were also tested by the oral route in one sex of weanlings. Nine pesticides tested by the oral route (bufencarb, cacodylic acid, dialifor, deltamethrin, dicamba, diquat, quintozene, phoxim, pyrazon) and four tested by the dermal route (bufencarb, chlordimeform, dichlofenthion, leptophos) were more toxic to females than to males whereas famphur and 2,4,5-T (oral route) were less toxic to females. Eighteen of the test chemicals were more toxic to the adult than to the weanling and four compounds (leptophos, methidathion, pyrazon, and sulfoxide) were more toxic to the weanling. In additional studies the variability of the LD50 value over a 1-year period was examined for two typical insecticides. Six consecutive bimonthly oral LD50 determinations for parathion and DDT in adults of both sexes indicated that the LD50 values were little affected by the time of year that the tests were done.