Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are included in the persistent organic pollutants designated by the Stockholm Convention and are hazardous compounds both for the environment and public health. The aim of this study was to determine the level of environmental pollution of PCBs in the Perm, in soil and biota (European pied flycatcher), and to analyze whether its presence was the cause of cancer and congenital malformations in the population. Soils in the study area had PCB concentrations of 101.87 µg/kg in the Industrialniy District and 27.81 µg/kg in the Leninskiy District of the Perm in 2005. The chemical composition of the individual PCBs and PCB groups were the same in the soils of both regions. The blood of nestlings of the European pied flycatcher raised in the Industrialniy District contained 9.61 ng PCB/ml, while those in the Leninskiy District had 5.64 ng PCB/ml in 2005. A linear correlation was established between the PCB contamination of soils and PCB contamination of pied flycatcher nestling's blood, and inverse linear correlation was established between the content of PCB in the blood of nestlings and the success of breeding of the pied flycatcher in Perm. An epidemiological analysis revealed a high incidence of cancer among the human population of the Industrialniy and Leninskiy districts (371.7 and 376.85 cases per 100,000 population, mean for the 2003-2018, respectively), which exceeded the figure for the whole of Perm (350.77 cases per 100,000 population, mean for the 2003-2018). The incidence rate of congenital malformations in Perm for the study period was 48.51 per 1000 human births. However, a decrease in the concentration of PCBs in soil and biota over a 15-year period (2005-2019) to the less than the detection limit did not lead to a decrease in the incidence of these diseases. Probably, PCB contamination was not the main cause of oncological diseases and congenital malformations in the population of the study area.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10653-020-00615-1 | DOI Listing |
G3 (Bethesda)
December 2024
Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.
Species-specific sexual traits facilitate species-assortative mating by reducing mating across species and reducing hybrid sexual attractiveness. For learned sexual traits, such as song in oscine birds, species distinctiveness can be eroded when species co-occur. Transcriptional regulatory divergence in brain regions involved in sensory learning are hypothesized to maintain species distinctiveness, but relatively few studies have compared gene expression in relevant brain regions between closely related species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBehav Ecol
November 2024
Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrhenius väg, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
Mol Ecol
November 2024
Departamento de Ciencias Integradas, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, Spain.
The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays a critical role in the immune response against pathogens. Its high polymorphism is thought to be mainly the consequence of host-pathogen co-evolution, but elucidating the mechanism(s) driving MHC evolution remains challenging for natural populations. We investigated the diversity of MHC class II genes in a wild population of pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca and tested its associations with two key components of individual fitness: lifetime reproductive success and survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Exp Biol
October 2024
Department of Biology, Lund University, Naturvetarvägen 6A, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.
Flight behaviours of birds have been extensively studied from different angles such as their kinematics, aerodynamics and, more generally, their migration patterns. Nevertheless, much is still unknown about the daily foraging flight activity and behaviour of breeding birds, and potential differences among males and females. The recent development of miniaturized accelerometers allows us a glimpse into the daily life of a songbird.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Toxicol Pharmacol
September 2024
Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Many of the negative physiological effects of lead involve the hypothalamus, but the possibility that thermoregulation is affected has received little attention. We tested the hypothesis that lead exposure reduces avian thermoregulatory performance under hot conditions in pied crows (Corvus albus) experimentally exposed to lead in their diet. Crows in our high lead treatment (blood [Pb] = 87.
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