Is atrazine a potential risk on mammalian diversity?

Modern agricultural practices usually include the intensive use of a number of conventional pesticides, which can act as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC) and for this reason may adversely affect species diversity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of EDC herbicide atrazine (ATR) on the mammalian reproductive ability. For this purpose, effects of atrazine on morphological and morphometrical characteristics of Leydig cells of Wistar rats testes were evaluated. Animals were treated from 23rd to 53rd postnatal day (PND) with atrazine in doses of 50 mg/kg of body weight (bw) and of 200 mg/kg bw. Our results have shown that both doses have caused a decrease in body and testicular weight in a dose-responsive manner. Also, both of these treatments caused an increase in interstitial space volume of testes and change in number, nucleocytoplasmic ratio and degree of vacualisation of Leydig cells. In this study we have shown that atrazine affects the structure and number of Leydig cells in a way that it can decrease the reproductive capability of rats, as well as other male mammals which is a serious and growing threat to mammalian biodiversity regarding the fact that the herbicide atrazine is excessively used in non-EU countries, as well as in the United States.