Reproductive Toxicity of Dermally Applied Mixture of Organophosphate and Pyrethroid Insecticides in A commercial Formulation to Male Albino Rats

Mixing organophosphate (OP) and pyrethroid (PYR) insecticides becomes common in Egypt sincemid-1980s and result in an impairment of male reproductive function. Thepresent investigation was conducted to study certain criteria used to evaluatethe reproductive toxicity of treated male rats with the commercial preparationof OP/PYR mixture, namely Runsave,which contains 30% chlorpyrifos (CPF) and 3% lambda-cyhalothrin (LTC) compared to its individual commercialcomponents of 48% E.C (CPF) and 5%E.C (LTC). Adult male rats weretreated dermally with sublethal dose of each toxicant (6 rats each) onalternate day for 8 weeks, then they were sacrificed except few rats thattreated with Runsave mixture. The relative testes weights, semen picture,activities of plasma and brain cholinesterases as well as histopathological changesin testes were determined. The remaining rats that treated with Runsave wereallowed to mate with untreated adult females. Results showed that the candidatetoxicants brought about marked reduction in testes relative weights, spermcounts and motilities, activities of plasma and brain cholinesterases (ChEs) and caused histopathological alterations in testes of treated rats, all in comparison with those ofcorresponding control group. Generally, the commercial preparation Runsave haspotentially greater toxic impact for rats than its components alone. Male ratstreated with Runsave and allowed to mate with receptive untreated females,their reproductive capabilities were greatly diminished.