Toxic Effects of Malathion and Endosulfan on Chick Embryo

Toxic effects of malathion and endosulfan to fertile chicken eggs were determined. Injection of 1.25, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 mg/egg of malathion into yolk sac of fertile eggs prior to incubation caused mortality of 10.0, 30.0, 83.33 and 93.33% respectively. Similar trend was observed with injection of endosulfan doses. Malathion and endosulfan at 1.25 mg/egg caused no pronounced LD50 increase in mortality as compared to control groups. The LD50 values for these insecticides proved malathion to be more toxic than endosulfan. The hypothesis that the dose response of viable embryo fitted a linear regression line was statistically acceptable. Combination of malathion and endosulfan increased the mortality rate as compared with either one alone. With either compound, an increased dose generally resulted in a decrease in embryonic body weight.