How does pesticides affect animals

Even the least-toxic products can cause health problems if an animal is exposed to enough of it. The risk of health problems depends not only on how toxic the ingredients are, but also on the amount of exposure to the product. Some animals may be more sensitive than others to the effects of certain pesticides. This includes, but is not limited to, bees, birds, small mammals, fish, other aquatic organisms, and the biota within soil. Wildlife can be impacted by pesticides through their direct or indirect application, such as pesticide drift, secondary poisoning, runoff into local water bodies, or groundwater contamination.

It is possible that some animals could be sprayed directly; others consume plants or prey that have been exposed to pesticides. Pesticide exposure can be linked to cancer, endocrine disruption, reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, kidney and liver damage, birth defects, and developmental changes in a wide range of species.

In birds , for example, exposure to certain pesticides can impede singing ability, making it difficult to attract mates and reproduce. Pesticides can also affect birds' ability to care for offspring, causing their young to die. Many deformations have been found after exposure to hormone-mimicking pesticides classified as endocrine disruptors. The impacts of these chemicals include hermaphroditic deformities in frogs, pseudo-hermaphrodite polar bears with penis-like stumps, panthers with atrophied testicles, and intersex fish in rivers throughout the U.

Visit our Pesticide Gateway for more information about specific pesticides and their impacts on wildlife. Biodiversity is the web of life, including the complex array of organisms that live in the environment, and their interactions and interdependencies. The functionality of biodiversity has deep significance for the nurturance and protection of the many individual species in the environment that are part of a greater whole. The impacts of pesticides on wildlife directly relate back to the functional aspects of biodiversity.

There have been calls to ban seven organophosphate pesticides — used on corn, cotton, watermelon and wheat — due to evidence that they can cause cognitive problems in children and thousands of deaths among bird species. Jonathan Lundgren, a senior entomologist, has accused federal agencies of suppressing negative research into the effects of pesticides.

Federal officials have rejected the claims. Please consider supporting us by donating! You must be logged in to post a comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

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