| | Accession Number | 5004580 |
| | Title | The effects of dietary methyl mercury exposure on American kestrels (Falco |
| | sparverius). |
| | Project Description | Mercury is a pollutant of serious concern: it is highly toxic to wildlife, it has a global distribution in |
| | the atmosphere and its aerial deposition to wildlife habitat is increasing. Several Federal agencies |
| | and state governments place very high priority on the development of criteria of environmental |
| | pollution that will be protective for wildlife. Relevant toxicological studies are needed to develop |
| | those criteria. Concern is greatest for methyl mercury because of its very high toxicity and its |
| | propensity for bioaccumulation in food webs. Much of the evaluation of risk for methyl mercury in |
| | the environment has focused on piscivorous birds or other wildlife from aquatic habitats and there |
| | is very little information on terrestrial wildlife and flesh-eating birds (raptors) in particular. There are |
| | only a few studies on raptors where exposure has been controlled, and none that measured the |
| | effects of mercury exposure on reproduction. Most existing risk assessments and criteria for |
| | harmful exposure to mercury in birds has been based studies of mallards, which are mostly |
| | herbivorous. This project will use the American kestrel, a small falcon found throughout the United |
| | States, to describe the relationship between dietary exposure to methyl mercury and its effects on |
| | important measures of reproductive success in a carnivorous bird. The American kestrel (Falco |
| | sparverius) has a long history of use in contaminant studies because they are easily maintained in |
| | captivity, readily bioaccumulate organic contaminants, and are closely related to several species |
| | of birds that are or were once endangered because of environmental contaminants. The goals of |
| | this project include: (i) locating the lethal dose of dietary exposure to methyl mercury and |
| | describing the signs of toxicity, (ii) establishing the dose response for several measures of |
| | reproduction in kestrels exposed to dietary methyl mercury and (iii) provide data on methyl |
| | mercury absorption and metabolism in the tissues of kestrels to evaluate the parameters for a |
| | physiologically based toxicokinetic (PBTK) model of methyl mercury distribution in kestrels. |
| | Keywords | american kestrel, lethality, methyl mercury, pbtk model, raptors, reproductive impairment, tissue |
| | distribution, |
| | Principal | B. F John, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: JOHN_B_FRENCH@USGS.GOV; |
| | Investigators |
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