Effects of PCBs, DDT, and mercury compounds in chickens and Japanese quail

In well-controlled experiments using white leghorn chickens and Japanese quail, dietary polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDT and related compounds produced no detrimental effects on eggshell quality. A drastic reduction in hatchability of chicks occurred with 10-20 ppm PCBs, but no detrimental effects on eggshell quality, egg production or hatchability were found with 0.5 and 1.0 ppm PCBs, or DDT up to 100 ppm. Dietary PCBs potentiated a vitamin E-selenium deficiency in the chick, increased exudative diathesis, and decreased plasma glutathione peroxidase levels. Dietary PCBs induced hepatic microsomal benzopyrine hydroxylase. Dietary levles of 100 or 200 ppm inorganic mercury as HgSO4 or HgCl2 had little effect on egg production, hatchability, shell quality, morbidity and mortality. Methylmercury chloride, however, at levels providing 10 or 20 mg Hg/kg of diet, severely affected all of these parameters. Even though the present experiments demonstrate that neither DDT nor PCBs has any effect on eggshell quality in chickens and Japanese quail, they may cause thinning of eggshells in other species. Controlled experiments are lacking. Eagles, ospreys and pelicans all consume fish which in many areas of the world are known to contain methyl mercury. The thinning of eggshells in the species in the wild may have been due, at least in part, to environmental contamination with methylmercury rather than DDT, DDE or PCBs, as has been claimed.