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J.F. Kreitzer

Publications and source records attributed to J.F. Kreitzer.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

Effects of monocrotophos and fenthion on discrimination acquisition and reversal in northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Adult male northern bobwhite ( Colinus virginianus ) were fed diets containing organo-phosphorus pesticides, and the birds' discrimination acquisition and reversal performance was evaluated. The birds received the pesticide-laced diets continually, beginning 2 d before behavioral testing and ending after the birds completed the test series consisting of an acquisition and 10 reversals. Bobwhites fed a diet containing 0.18 ppm monocrotophos made 118% more errors ( p ± 0.05) than did controls during reversals but not during acquisition. The behavior of bobwhites fed diets containing 0.02 and 0.06 ppm monocrotophos was not different from that of controls. Acquisition performance of bobwhites fed a diet containing 7 ppm fenthion was not different ( p > 0.05) from that of controls; however, bobwhites fed the fenthion diet made 48% fewer errors ( p ± 0.05) in the reversals. When retested after 18 (monocrotophos) and 73 (fenthion) d on clean diets, no residual behavioral effects were detected. Brain cholinesterase activity was inhibited in all treatment groups.

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Effects of toxaphene and endrin at very low dietary concentrations on discrimination acquisition and reversal in bobwhite quail, Colinus virginianus

Adult male bobwhite quail Colinus virginianus were fed toxaphene (chlorinated camphene, 67–69% chlorine) at 10 and 50 ppm or endrin (1,2,3,4,10,10-hexachloro-6,7-epoxy-1,4,4a,5,6,7,8,8a-octahydro-1,4-endo-endo,5,8-dimethanonaphalene) at 0·1 and 1·0 ppm and their performance on non-spatial discrimination reversal tasks was measured. The birds were on dosage for 138 days (beginning at the age of 3 days) prior to testing. Two tests (with different pairs of patterns) were conducted with toxaphene-treated birds and five with endrin-treated birds. The toxaphene-treated birds made 50% more errors than did controls ( p < 0·02). There was no difference between the effects of the two treatment levels. The performance of the treated birds on a second test equalled that of the controls, indicating that the birds were able to adjust to the pesticide whilst on treatment. Endrin-treated birds made from 36 to 139% more errors than did controls ( p < 0·025). The difference between the number of errors made by the controls and the number made by the treated birds on the acquisition, or initial problem of each test, increased exponentially over the first four tests. The 0·1 ppm birds made significantly more errors than the 1·0 ppm birds after reversal 3 or 4 in the first three tests. The endrin effects were reversed after 50 days of untreated feed. The principal effect of endrin was to impair the birds' ability to solve a novel problem. The effects of toxaphene in birds treated as adults appeared after about 30 days of treatment and those of endrin after about 40 days of treatment. Mean brain residues in endrin-treated birds were 0·075 ppm (wet weight basis) for the 0·1 ppm level birds and 0·35 ppm for the 1·0 ppm level birds.

Environmental Pollution (Series A)

The toxicity of p,p'-DDT to the clapper rail

The LC50 (concentration of toxicant in the diet expected to kill half of the test birds in 5 days) for p,p' -DDT in clapper rails (Rallus longirostris) was found to be 1,612 ppm for males and 1,896 ppm for females. Amounts of DDT + DDD in the brains of birds that died were significantly greater (P < 0.01) than those in the brains of survivors. Thirty ppm DDT + DDD approximated the lower limit of these compounds in the brains of rails diagnostic of death from DDT poisoning. Residues in livers and carcasses are reported. Considering the relatively high resistance of the clapper rail to DDT poisoning, we concluded that exposure to this pesticide in marshes is not likely to be a significant factor in mortality of adult rails. Effects other than direct mortality were not evaluated in this study.

Journal of Wildlife Management

The effect of sublethal dosages of five pesticides and a polychlorinated biphenyl on the avoidance response of coturnix quail chicks

Coturnix quail (Coturnix coturnix) chicks were given sublethal amounts of chlordane, dieldrin, endrin, DDE, Ceresan M, or Aroclor 1254 (a polychlorinated biphenyl) in their feed, beginning at seven days of age, and their avoidance response to a moving silhouette was measured daily for fourteen days. The birds were on dosage for eight days, and on untreated feed for six days immediately thereafter. Group avoidance response was significantly suppressed (P from 0?01 to <0?001) by chlordane, dieldrin, endrin, Ceresan M, and Aroclor 1254. No effect of DDE on the birds' behaviour could be detected. The behaviour of the endrin-treated birds returned to normal after two days on untreated feed. The data indicated partial recovery for birds treated with dieldrin and chlordane, but none for those Ceresan M, or Aroclor 1254. The percentage of controls responding to the silhouette dropped from an average of 84 for the first four days to 70 on the sixth day; then it increased until the end of the test when it was almost 80. This apparently aberrant behaviour of healthy birds is tentatively attributed to a daily decrease in the discrepancy between the moving silhouette and the birds' schema for the silhouette, followed by maturation of the central nervous system, beginning at about the fourteenth day of age. We believe this maturation effected revival of interest and hence a heightened reaction to the stimulus.

Environmental Pollution

Residues of organochlorine pesticides, mercury, and PCB's in mourning doves from eastern United States--1970-71

Mourning dove (Zenaidura macroura) breast muscle samples from birds collected in 1970-71 from Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida were found to contain residues of DDT, DDE, DDD, polychlorinated biphenyls, dieldrin, mirex, mercury, and heptachlor epoxide in amounts not considered hazardous to consumers, human or nonhuman. There were 145 birds involved, 7 to 10 from each State. Residues of DDT plus DDE plus DDD averaged 5.83 ppm lipid weight (0.068 ppm wet weight); those of PCB's, 9.75 ppm lipid weight (0.121 ppm wet weight); compounds were found in all birds. Heptachlor epoxide and dieldrin were found in little more than trace amounts: heptachlor in all birds, dieldrin in 73. Mirex was found only in birds from South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, averaging 4.32 ppm lipid weight (0.046 ppm wet weight) in eight birds. Less than 0.05 ppm (wet weight) mercury was found in all birds except 10, in which it ranged from 0.07 to 0.67 ppm. The 10 were from Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama.

Pesticides Monitoring Journal

Thickness of the American woodcock eggshell, 1971

Eggs or empty shells of the American woodcockwere collected from 10 states in 1971and shell thickness (mean of clutch means) was compared with that of eggs collected from 16 states during the years 1859-1939. The 1971 shells (n = 91) from hatched eggs or those containing fully developed embryos were about i0 percent thinner (P<0.001) than both unembryonated shells (n = 26) from the same year and the 1859-1939 shells (n = 169) from essentially unembryonated eggs. The difference is attributed to the transfer of calcium from the shells to the embryos and not to environmental pollutants.

Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryla

Tests of pesticidal synergism with young pheasants and Japanese quail

Thirteen pairs of chemicals involving 18 pesticides and two polychlorinated biphenyl preparations were each fed for 5 days to Japanese quail or ring-necked pheasant chicks 7 to 16 days of age. Malathion + EPN, and malathion + trichlorofon were moderately synergistic in tests with both species, whereas joint toxicities of the other chemicals tended to be additive. Comparisons with other studies of joint action of pesticides against mammals and insects suggest that the two species of birds tested are less susceptible to synergism than are mammals or insects. The results also suggest that the likelihood of a factor of synergism greater than three in birds is not great.

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxico

Ethyl Mercury p-Toluene Sulfonanilide: Lethal and Reproductive Effects on Pheasants

Ethyl mercury p -toluene sulfonanilide (active ingredient of Ceresan M) at a dietary concentration of 30 parts per million (12.5 parts of mercury per million) was lethal to adult ring-necked pheasants. Egg production and survival of third-week embryos were sharply reduced when breeders were maintained on feed containing 10 parts of this compound per million (4.2 parts of mercury per million).

Science

The effect of embryonic development on the thickness of the eggshells of the coturnix quail

The average thickness of the shells from 75 unincubated coturnix quail eggs was found to be 0.193 mm. This was 7.3 percent greater than the average thickness (0.179 mm.) of the shells from 60 fully incubated eggs from the same hens. The two sets of eggs were collected simultaneously. This thickness difference was statistically significant (t-test:p< 0.005).

Poultry Science

Comparative Dietary Toxicities of Pesticides to Birds

This report presents measurements of the lethal dietary toxicity of 89 pesticidal chemicals to young bowhites, Japanese quail, ring-necked pheasants, and mallards. Toxicity is expressed as the median lethal concentration (LC 50) of active chemical in a 5-day ad libitum diet. LC 50's and associated statistics are derived by methods of probit analysis. Endrin consistently was the most toxic chemical while aldrin and dieldrin were among the six most toxic chemicals of those tested on all species. In general, organophosphates were less toxic than aldrin or dieldrin and herbicides were of a low order of toxicity. There were obvious inconsistencies in the relative sensitivity of the four species to various chemicals.

Special Scientific Report - Wildlife

Eggshell thickness in mourning dove populations

Eggs ( n = 452) of the mourning dove ( Zenaidura macroura ) were collected from 9 states in 1969 and 11 states in 1970, and shell thickness was compared with that of eggs ( n = 97) collected from 24 states during the years 1861 to 1935. Mean shell thickness did not differ significantly in the test groups.

conterminous United States

Thickness of 1967-69 whooping crane eggshells compared to that of pre-1910 specimens

Table 1 summarizes measurements of pre-1910 Whooping Crane ( Grus americana ) eggshells obtained from 10 North American museums and private egg collections. They include 30 eggs from Iowa, 5 from North Dakota, 13 from Manitoba, and 2 each from Saskatchewan and Alberta; 11 of the eggs were classified as subelliptical and 41 as oval according to the shapes described by Palmer (1962: 13). Mean clutch size of 29 sets averaged 1.83. We found no significant geographical variations (P < 0.20) among eggs from different portions of the former range (Allen, 1952: 19) of the Whooping Crane, although geographical variations in size and weight are known to occur in the eggshells of the Sandhill Cranes ( G. canadensis ), which are more widely distributed and more taxonomically diverse (Walkinshaw, 1949: 68-70). The average thickness and weight of the 52 eggshells were 0.60 mm and 20.1 g, respectively. These measurements are similar to those of Allen (1952: 180), citing M. Schonwetter, who gives the average thickness of Whooping Crane eggshells as 0.58 mm and the average shell weight as 20.75 g (n = 14 weights).

The Auk

Mortality among bobwhites confined to a heptachlor contaminated environment

The lethal effects of heptachlor on bobwhites ( Colinus virginianus ) were studied at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center during 1962 and 1963. A pair of adult birds was placed in each of 32 wire-covered field pens (20 x 50 x 61/2 ft) in May, 1962, and in 36 additional pens in May, 1963. Heptachlor (technical grade on clay granules) was spread in the pens at rates of1/8, 1/4, 1 1/4 and 2 lb/acre. In 1963 the treated pens were thoroughly soaked with a hose before birds were introduced to avoid the possibility of birds pecking granules. Heptachlor at 1 1/4 and 2 lb/acre caused severe mortality among birds introduced successively during the first 15 days after application. Mortality declined rapidly among birds placed in these same pens thereafter and was undetectable after 45 days. Mortality at 1/4 lb/acre was significant only during the first 15 days of the 1962 test. There was no detectable difference in mortality of the sexes. Water applied to the pens followed by fairly heavy rain did not significantly affect mortality.

Alabama