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Year :	1991
Tome :	142
Volume :	6
Pages :	481-488
Title :	Veterinary toxicology of a « model-herbicide » : atrazine
Authors :	G. KECK, Ch. BOSTVIRONNOIS et E. BRAQUET
Summary :	Atrazine, one of the most used herbicides since many years, is often suspected in intoxications or accidents in domestic or wild animals. This leads to a great number of calls to the Centre National d'Informations Toxicologiques Vétérinaires (CNITV), which is the only veterinary poison center in Europe. A critical survey of those calls over a 10 years-period shows that, in fact, the majority of the suspicions were not confirmed by examining the circumstances of exposure, the clinical picture or the levels found by analysis. Intoxications which were confirmed are generally due to the direct ingestion of the phyto-sanitary preparation by animals, at rather high dose levels. In those accidental intoxications, negligence takes a major place. For a great proportion of true intoxications, the evolution was not fatal, which confirms that the toxic risks of atrazine are by far smaller as is often thought, by extrapolating toxicity for animals from the strong phytotoxicity of atrazine.
Keywords :	Atrazine - herbicide - pesticide - acute toxicity - animal intoxications.
Correspondence :	G. KECK
Adress :	Centre National d'Informations Toxicologiques Vétérinaires, École Vétérinaire de Lyon, F-69280 Marcy l'Étoile.