Effetti di farmaci veterinari sull’attività natatoria di due organismi d’acqua dolce.

Alterations in swimming activity may influence ecologically-relevant performances such as predation avoidance, prey capture, growth, stress resistance, mating and longevity. The evaluation of swimming activity support toxicological investigation with endpoints other than traditional LC50s, and may aid in investigating the environmental relevance of low-level exposures and in determining lowest NOELs and LOELs. In this paper, some veterinary antibacterials which may contaminate the aquatic environment due to their use in livestock and/or aquaculture mass treatments are evaluated for their effects on swimming activity in Daphnia magna (primary consumer) and Poecilia reticulata (secondary consumer). Results show that the chosen endpoint may call to the attention of ecotoxicology some compounds otherwise negligible, based on lethality test.