{"id":33474,"date":"2011-04-29T12:55:23","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T16:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/33474\/sex-changing-herbicide-amphibians-sick\/"},"modified":"2011-04-29T12:55:23","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T16:55:23","slug":"sex-changing-herbicide-amphibians-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/33474\/sex-changing-herbicide-amphibians-sick\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex-Changing Herbicide Makes Amphibians Sick, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sex-Changing Herbicide Makes Amphibians Sick, Too<\/strong><\/span>
\nby Brandon Keim<\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Atrazine is receiving lots of attention for turning male frogs into girls, but that\u2019s not all the common herbicide can do. It also weakens amphibian immune systems, leaving the fragile creatures vulnerable to disease.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Though less obvious than gender bending, immunosuppression could also play a part in the worldwide decline of amphibians, which have porous skin and easily absorb chemicals from rain, groundwater and even water vapor.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNumerous studies have documented the effects of environmental pollutants on the amphibian immune system. Nearly all of these studies suggest that amphibians are particularly sensitive,\u201d wrote Tyrone Hayes, a University of California, Berkeley biologist, in a paper published in the March 15 Journal of Experimental Biology<\/em>. \u201cIn particular, the widespread herbicide atrazine impairs immune function and increases disease rates.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hayes is also an author of a March 1 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em> study on the developmental changes wrought in male frogs<\/a> by groundwater atrazine concentrations regularly found in the United States, where approximately 80 million pounds of the herbicide are used every year. The frogs had low levels of sperm and testosterone; some even produced estrogen, developed female reproductive organs and were ultimately impregnated by their former gender mates.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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The findings are disturbing, but atrazine\u2019s effects don\u2019t end there. As described in the JEB<\/em> paper, a large body of scientific literature describes how atrazine drives down white cell counts and turns off immune system-regulating genes. Atrazine also suppresses immune function in snails, which often carry amphibian-infesting parasites, and feeds the algae on which snails live.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a perfect storm of infection: atrazine makes amphibians more vulnerable to disease, and carriers of disease more common.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The best-known amphibian killer, the chytrid fungus, has killed 95 percent of all frogs in Colombia and Panama, and driven 30 species in the Atelopus<\/em> genus to extinction \u2014 and it was only identified in 1993. However, according to Hayes, chytrid is only the most apparent amphibian affliction. Others may go unnoticed because they don\u2019t kill the fragile creatures, but damage their health just enough to prevent populations from sustaining themselves. About 70 percent of amphibian populations around the world are now in decline.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Atrazine, which is scheduled for review by the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> after being declared safe by the Bush-era EPA, isn\u2019t the only potential chemical culprit. Many common pesticides and herbicides have also been linked to amphibian immune malfunction. But as bad as other chemicals may be, Hayes considers atrazine \u2014 which can travel up to 600 miles in groundwater \u2014 the worst.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so common, so mobile and persistent, and so active at low levels,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there may be chemicals out there just as bad, only we don\u2019t have data on them.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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Love & Light,
\n\u2665Angel Love\u2665<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


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Atrazine is receiving lots of attention for turning male frogs into girls, but that\u2019s not all the common herbicide can do. It also weakens amphibian immune systems, leaving the fragile creatures vulnerable to disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,28,10,587],"tags":[2676,3153,3158,2957,3155,451,3154,3156,3159,3157],"class_list":["post-33474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-health","category-life","category-science","tag-angel-love","tag-atrazine","tag-chytrid-fungus","tag-disease","tag-frogs","tag-health-2","tag-herbicides","tag-immune-system","tag-pesticides","tag-poison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}