ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the information available in the scientific literature on the effects on the different groups of reptiles of major pollutants of anthropogenic origin, main pesticides causing acute poisoning, biotoxins, and main drug and plant toxicoses (reported in captive reptiles). It provides several tables summarizing the effects of pollutants of anthropogenic origin on organs and health parameters. Several studies demonstrated that chronic exposure to pyrethroids at doses as low as 1% of their LC50 value is capable of rendering toxicity in fish. However, the chronic effects of pyrethrins and pyrethroids in other cold-blooded vertebrates such as reptiles have been scarcely studied, and only a few studies can be found in the scientific literature to date. The data in reptiles are virtually nonexistent, but in a controlled assay about the toxicity of cholecalciferol in Brown Tree Snakes the authors found no mortality after oral administration of high doses (40 mg/kg).
