Synergistic effects of glyphosate formulation and parasite infection on fish malformations and survival

1. Anthropogenic pollution and disease can cause both lethal and sub-lethal effects in aquatic species but our understanding of how these stressors interact is often not known. Contaminants can reduce host resistance to disease, but whether hosts are impacted at environmentally relevant concentrations is poorly understood. 2. We investigated the independent and combined effects of exposure to the common herbicide glyphosate and the trematode parasite Telogaster opisthorchis on survival and the development of spinal malformations in juvenileGalaxias anomalus, a New Zealand freshwater fish. We then investigated how exposure to a glyphosate concentration gradient (0Æ36, 3Æ6, 36 mg active ingredient (a.i.) L) affected the production and release of the infective cercarial stage of the parasite by its snail intermediate hostPotamopyrgus antipodarum. 3. Survival of juvenile fish was unaffected by exposure to glyphosate alone (at an environmentally relevant concentration; 0Æ36 mg a.i. L) or by T. opisthorchis infection alone. However, simultaneous exposure to infection and glyphosate significantly reduced fish survival. 4. Juvenile fish developed spinal malformations when exposed either to infections alone or to infections and glyphosate, with a trend towards greater severity of spinal malformation after exposure to both stressors. 5. All snails exposed to the highest glyphosate concentration (36 mg a.i. L) died within 24 h. Snails exposed to a moderate concentration (3Æ6 mg a.i. L) produced significantly more T. opisthorchis cercariae than snails in the control group or the low concentration group (0Æ36 mg a.i. L; the same concentration as in the fish experiment). 6. Synthesis and applications. This is the first study to show that parasites and glyphosate can act synergistically on aquatic vertebrates at environmentally relevant concentrations, and that glyphosate might increase the risk of disease in fish. Our results have important implications when identifying risks to aquatic communities and suggest that threshold levels of glyphosate currently set by regulatory authorities do not adequately protect freshwater systems.