Mutagenic activity in synthetic pyrethroids in Salmonella typhimurium

Four pyrethroids, allethrin, resmethrin, permethrin and fenvalerate, were tested for mutagenicity in bacterial reversion assay systems with seven strains (TA1535, TA100, TA1538, TA98, TA1537, TA97 and TA104) of Salmonella typhimurium. Our results show that three pyrethroids, namely resmethrin, permethrin and fenvalerate, were not found to be mutagenic in S. typhimurium in the presence or absence of a rat liver activation system. Allethrin was found to be mutagenic with TA100, TA104 and TA97 strains and required metabolic activation (S9 mix) in order to show its activity, mainly with TA100 and TA104 strains.