Toxicity of Some Oils to Waterfowl

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Abstract
A number of industrial oils were tested for their toxic effects on waterfowl. All oils were able to cause lipid pneumonia, gastrointestinal irritation, fatty livers, and adrenal cortical hyperplasia when fed to ducks in single doses by stomach tube. Feeding of a cutting oil and a diesel oil also resulted in acinar atrophy of the pancreas. The diesel oil and a fuel oil produced toxic nephrosis in a number of animals. Feeding the cutting oil produced a definite inhibition of cholinesterase activity while the diesel oil depressed cholinesterase activity only slightly. Approximate LD50 values were determined for a number of oils under different environmental conditions. Gross examination of a series of 41 ducks which had been killed by oil pollution in the wild showed, at autopsy, changes similar to those encountered in the experimentally fed ducks. It was concluded that the toxicity of polluting oils is a definite factor in the observed mortalities due to oil pollution.

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