Teratological Effect of Indoxacarb on Chick Embryos (Gallus gallus domesticus)

The present study was designed to assess the teratological effects of Indoxacarb on chick embryos (Gallus gallus domesticus) by administering different doses of commercial Indoxacarb (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5μl/1000μl/egg, in three experimental groups B, C and D) injected into the yolk sac of eggs before incubation. Embryos were recovered at day 12 of incubation. The mortality rate gradually increased from lower to higher doses. A total of twelve morphometric parameters viz., wet body weight, crown rump length, anterior posterior head diameter, eye diameter, beak length, neck length, humerus length, radius and ulna length, metacarpus length, femur length, fibula length and metatarsus length were recorded and compared with control group. These quantitative parameters indicated significant (p<0.05) decrease in all treated groups compared to control group. While the qualitative anomalies such as microcephaly, hydrocephaly, edematous swelling, hematoma formation, abnormal body coloration, anophthalmia, microphthalmia, deformed beak, agnathia, wry neck, micromelia, amelia, omphalocele and ectopia cardis were also recorded in treated groups as compared to untreated groups. Therefore, it is concluded that Indoxacarb has potentially harmful effects on the development of avian embryos even at very low dose concentration. Hence, due to toxicity of this pesticide it must be used with utmost caution.