March 11, 2016

Adverse Effects in Wild Fish Living Downstream From Pharmaceutical Manufacture Discharges

Jennie Dwyer '16

Drugs taken by humans and animals find their way into rivers, lakes, and even drinking water. They enter water systems in three main ways: excretion, improper disposal, and drug manufacture discharges. The active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in these drugs induce adverse effects in aquatic ecosystems, one being endocrine disruption. The paper “Adverse Effects in Wild Fish Living downstream From Pharmaceutical Manufacture Discharges” by Sachez et al. looked at the effects of drug manufacture discharges on wild gudgeon. Three study sites were selected: upstream, just downstream of the manufacture, and the last site was farther downstream from the last one. The fish were collected and their gonads were removed for gender determination and histological analysis. The fish exhibited strong signs of endocrine disruption as shown by a high level of circulating VTG concentrations, a high proportion of intersex fish, and a male biased sex ratio. Evidence supports hypothesis that APIs induce adverse effects in fish and that fish populations from both downstream locations could disappear.