Tissue residues from feeding pentachloronitrobenzene (quintozene) to White Leghorn chickens

One-day-old White Leghorn chicks were fed graded levels (0, 10, 50, 100 and 1,000 ppm) of pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB; quintozene) up to 8 weeks. Each treatment group consisted of 90 randomly selected birds (2 replications of 45 birds each). Body weight gains were significantly lower at the 1,000-ppm treatment level. Histopathologic examination of brain, liver, pancreas, small intestine, gizzard, spleen, kidney, lung, and heart failed to reveal lesions in either control or treated groups. Bioaccumulation of PCNB or its metabolites (pentachloroaniline and pentachlorophenylmethylsulfide) in tissues only occurred in trace or very low concentrations. However, trace contaminating of PCNB, eg, hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and pentachlorobenzene (PCB) accumulated in tissues to a significant degree. Tetrachloronitrobenzene, another contaminant of PCNB, was found in only the adipose and cardiac tissues following the feeding of 1,000 ppm PCNB. Storage of PCNB, HCB, and PCB in adipose and other tissues was linearly related to the amount of PCNB in the ration.