Effects of dietary exposure to brominated flame retardant BDE-47 on thyroid condition, gonadal development and growth of zebrafish

Little is known about the effects of brominated flame retardants in teleosts and some of the information currently available is inconsistent. This study examined effects of dietary exposure to 2,2′,4,4′-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) on thyroid condition, body mass and size, and gonadal development of zebrafish. Pubertal, 49-day-old (posthatch) fish were fed diets without BDE-47 (control) or with 1, 5 or 25 μg/g BDE-47/diet. Treatments were conducted in triplicate 30-L tanks each containing 50 zebrafish, and 15 fish per treatment (5 per tank) were sampled at days 40, 80 and 120 of exposure. Measurements were taken of body mass, standard length, head depth and head length. Sex (at 40–120 days of exposure), germ cell stage (at 40 days) and thyroid condition (at 120 days; follicular cell height, colloid depletion, angiogenesis) were histologically determined. Whole-body BDE-47 levels at study completion were within the high end of levels reported in environmentally exposed (wild) fishes. Analysis of variance was used to determine differences among treatments at each sampling time. No effects were observed on thyroid condition or germ cell stage in either sex. Reduced head length was observed in females exposed to BDE-47 at 80 days but not at 40 or 120 days. In males, no apparent effects of BDE-47 were observed at 40 and 80 days, but fish exposed to 25 μg/g had lower body mass at 120 days compared to control fish. These observations suggest that BDE-47 at environmentally relevant whole-body concentrations does not affect thyroid condition or pubertal development of zebrafish but does affect growth during the juvenile-to-adult transition, especially in males.