Effects of Veterinary Drugs on Swimming Activity in Two Freshwater Organisms.

Alterations in swimming activity may influence ecologically relevant performance, such as predation avoidance, prey capture, growth, stress resistance, mating, and longevity. The evaluation of swimming activity supports toxicological investigation with endpoints other than traditional LC50s values and may aid in investigating the environmental relevance of low-level exposures and determining “no observable effect concentration” (NOEC) and “lowest observable effect concentration” (LOEC). In this chapter, some veterinary antibacterial compounds that may contaminate the aquatic environment due to their use in livestock and/or mass aquaculture treatments are evaluated for their effects on swimming activity of Daphnia magna (primary consumer) and Poecilia reticulata (secondary consumer). Results show that the chosen endpoint may call to the attention of ecotoxicology some compounds that are otherwise negligible, based on lethality tests.