Organochlorine pesticides as endocrine disruptors in wildlife

Many xenobiotic compounds introduced into the environment by human activity have been shown to adversely affect wildlife. The ubiquitous distribution of many contaminants and the documented, nonlethal, multigenerational effects on the reproductive, endocrine, and immune systems have lead to concerns that wildlife worldwide are affected. The reproductive disorders reported to date in wildlife include reduced fertility, reduced hatchability, reduced viability of offspring, impaired hormone secretion or activity and modified reproductive anatomy. The endocrine system exhibits an organizing effect on the developing embryo. Thus, a disruption of the normal hormonal signals can permanently modify the organization and future function of the reproductive system. An understanding of the developmental consequences of endocrine disruption in wildlife can lead to new indicators of exposure to endocrine disrupting contaminants. Thus, wildlife serve as important sentinels of ecosystem health, including human public health. An ecoepidemiological approach examining wildlife reproductive abnormalities combined with traditional toxicological studies identifying causation can provide the best model for predicting ecosystem concerns due to environmental contamination.