Low concentrations of the benzodiazepine drug oxazepam induce anxiolytic effects in wild-caught but not in laboratory zebrafish

Abstract

Pollution by psychoactive pharmaceuticals has been found to disrupt anti-predator behaviors of wild fish. The challenge is now to identify which of the many psychoactive drugs pose the greatest threat. One strategy is to screen for behavioral effects of selected pharmaceuticals using a single, widely available fish species such as zebrafish. Here, we show that although such high-throughput behavioral screening might facilitate comparisons between pharmaceuticals, the choice of strain is essential. While wild-caught zebrafish exposed to concentrations of the anxiolytic drug oxazepam as low as 0.57 mu g L-1 showed a reduction in the response to conspecific alarm pheromone, laboratory strain AB did not respond to the alarm cue, and consequently, the anxiolytic effect of oxazepam could not be measured. Adaptation to the laboratory environment may have rendered laboratory strains unfit for use in some ecotoxicological and pharmacological studies, since the results might not translate to wild fish populations. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Oxazepam; Benzodiazepines; GABA; Pharmaceutical pollution; Schreckstoff; Domestication

Published in

Science of the Total Environment
2020, volume: 703, article number: 134701
Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• Cerveny, Daniel

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Umeå University
  • University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice

• Brodin, Tomas

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Winberg, Svante

  • Uppsala University

UKÄ Subject classification

Behavioral Sciences Biology
Environmental Sciences

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134701

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/104016