Teratological evaluations of atrazine technical, a triazine herbicide, in rats and rabbits

Atrazine technical was evaluated for its embryotoxic, fetotoxic, and teratogenic potential in both rats and rabbits. The compound was orally administered at doses of 0, 10, 70, or 700 mg/kg.d to groups of rats on gestational d 6-15, while rabbits were administered doses of 0, 1, 5, or 75 mg/kg.d on gestational d 7-19. Maternal toxicity was observed at doses greater than or equal to 70 mg/kg.d in rats and at doses greater than or equal to 5 mg/kg.d in rabbits. Minor fetal effects, concurrent with maternal toxicity, were observed in rats at doses greater than or equal to 70 mg/kg.d. Among rabbits, fetal effects concurrent with severe maternal toxicity were only observed at the 75 mg/kg.d dose level. There were no adverse maternal or fetal effects in either rats or rabbits at the low dose levels. These findings indicated that pregnant rabbits were more sensitive than pregnant rats to the effects produced by atrazine technical and the compound was not teratogenic at maternally toxic dose levels in either species.