Effect of Activated Carbon on Elimination of Organochlorine Pesticides from Rats and Cows

Abstract

Mature rats were fed a diet containing 5 #g/g DDT for 14 days. The inclusion of 5% activated carbon with DDT reduced DDT retention (P ~ 0.01). When DDT feeding was followed by 14 days of activated carbon feeding the retention of DDT was 62.4 for the control and 62.6% for the treated group. Activated carbon had no effect on feed intake but significantly reduced the ]4-day weight gains from 10.2 to 3.6 g (P < 0.05). Four of 8 cows previously contaminated with dieldrin, DDD and DDT were fed 1 kg/day activated carbon for 14 days. There were no significant effects on the pesticide concentrations in the milk fat. The activated carbon resulted in nonsignificant reductions in milk (17.8 to 16.3 kg/ day) and fat (.84 to .77 kg/day) production. In a second experiment 4 of 8 cows previously contaminated with dieldrin, DDE and DDT were fed 1 kg/day activated carbon for 26 days. The activated carbon had no significant effect on the milk and body fat concentrations of the pesticides. Milk production (20.4 to 18.5 kg/day) and fat production (0.82 to 0.72 kg/day) were reduced (P ~ 0.05) by the activated carbon. Activated carbon had no effect on feed consumption.