title: Laboratory Rodent Diets Contain Toxic Levels of Environmental Contaminants: Implications for Regulatory Tests.
abstract: The quality of diets in rodent feeding trials is crucial. We describe the contamination with environmental pollutants of 13 laboratory rodent diets from 5 continents. Measurements were performed using accredited methodologies. All diets were contaminated with pesticides (1-6 out of 262 measured), heavy metals (2-3 out of 4, mostly lead and cadmium), PCDD/Fs (1-13 out of 17) and PCBs (5-15 out of 18). Out of 22 GMOs tested for, Roundup-tolerant GMOs were the most frequently detected, constituting up to 48% of the diet. The main pesticide detected was Roundup, with residues of glyphosate and AMPA in 9 of the 13 diets, up to 370 ppb. The levels correlated with the amount of Roundup-tolerant GMOs. Toxic effects of these pollutants on liver, neurodevelopment, and reproduction are documented. The sum of the hazard quotients of the pollutants in the diets (an estimator of risk with a threshold of 1) varied from 15.8 to 40.5. Thus the chronic consumption of these diets can be considered at risk. Efforts toward safer diets will improve the reliability of toxicity tests in biomedical research and regulatory toxicology.
authors.affiliation: University of Caen, Institute of Biology, EA2608 and Network on Risks, Quality and Sustainable Environment MRSH, Esplanade de la Paix, 14032 Caen Cedex, France; CRIIGEN, 40 rue Monceau, 75008, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mesnage
authors.affiliation: University of Caen, Institute of Biology, EA2608 and Network on Risks, Quality and Sustainable Environment MRSH, Esplanade de la Paix, 14032 Caen Cedex, France; CRIIGEN, 40 rue Monceau, 75008, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Defarge
authors.affiliation: CRIIGEN, 40 rue Monceau, 75008, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Louis-Marie
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Rocque
authors.affiliation: CRIIGEN, 40 rue Monceau, 75008, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Joël
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spiroux de Vendômois
authors.affiliation: University of Caen, Institute of Biology, EA2608 and Network on Risks, Quality and Sustainable Environment MRSH, Esplanade de la Paix, 14032 Caen Cedex, France; CRIIGEN, 40 rue Monceau, 75008, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Gilles-Eric
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Séralini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D030841:Food, Genetically Modified / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D005998:Glycine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006540:Herbicides / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012377:Rodentia; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D000097797:Glyphosate
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D005998:Glycine; D006540:Herbicides; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls; D000097797:Glyphosate