Acta Vet. Brno 2007, 76: 635-642

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb200776040635

Zinc and Cadmium Toxicity Using a Biotest with Artemia franciscana

J. Nováková1, D. Daňová1, K. Strišková1, R. Hromada2, H. Mičková3, M. Rabišková4

1Department of Radiobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Košice, Slovak Republic
2Department of Environment, University of Veterinary Medicine Košice, Slovak Republic
3Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik Košice, Slovak Republic
4Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Czech republic

Received May 21, 2007
Accepted October 2, 2007

Of the various toxic elements heavy metals, particularly cadmium, lead, mercury and zinc, occur frequently in the environment due to their relatively high industrial use. While the toxicity of individual substances is usually well known, information about their mutual interactions is relatively scarce. In animal experiments the prevailing trend is to substitute higher vertebrates with biotests of the 2nd generation. Our experiment focused on observation of the effect of combinations of ZnSO4.7H2O and CdCl2.2H2O on lethality to Artemia franciscana. The aim of the study was to observe the synergistic or antagonistic effects of these two metals. Depending on concentration, cadmium may increase or decrease the toxicity of zinc. at higher concentrations of CdCl2.2H2O exceeding 100 mg l-1 one can observe obvious synergistic toxic effects of both the substances. Our observations allowed us to conclude that the use of optimum, relatively low concentrations of cadmium (up to 50 mg l-1 CdCl2.2H2O) results in a significant decrease in lethality to Artemia franciscana caused by ZnSO4.7H2O at concentrations of 50, 100 a 250 mg l-1.

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