Tissue lesions of tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum): relationship to sewage effluents

A population of facultative neotenous tiger salamanders (A. tigrinum) inhabiting a sewage lagoon at Reese AFB, Hurlwood, Texas, was found to have an exceptionally high rate of spontaneous tissue lesions. The population is composed of an estimated 28,000 large, reproductively mature larvae that are restricted to the lagoon. Only about 17% of the population metamorphoses normally. In contrast, tiger salamanders from uncontaminated lagoons in the same general vicinity metamorphose normally; however, no neoplasms were discovered in larvae sampled from the nonsewage lagoosn. N-nitrosamine analyses of water and tissue samples of larvae were negative. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon analyses revealed traces of benzo[a]pyrene in the sludge; however, perylene, a constituent of jet fuel, was found in high concentration (300 ppb). These results indicate tat preylene, which was previously found not be tumorigenic to mice and rats, should be retested as a possible agent for nonmammalian species.