EFFECTS OF CHLORDECONE ON FOOD-INTAKE AND BODY-WEIGHT IN THE MALE-RAT

The effects of the chlorinated pesticide chlordecone on food intake, body weight, and water intake were examined in adult male rats. Chlordecone treatment produced a dose dependent suppression of food intake. Loss of body weight accompanied the reduced food intake. However, chlordecone did not suppress water intake. Chlordecone treated animals maintained on a liquid diet also demonstrated reduced food intake, suggesting that chlordecone has a specific effect on feeding behavior and not a general effect on ingestive behaviors. The potential contribution of chlordecone-induced tremor to the suppressed food intake and the loss of body weight was considered. When treatment occurred immediately before a 24 hr fast, controls and animals given 75 mg/kg showed no differences in the body weight decline, even though tremor occurred in the pesticide-treated rats. Thus, it is unlikely that tremor alone produced the body weight loss observed in the present experiment. Similarly, animals were capable of initiating eating behavior even though tremor was present. In addition, chlordecone treatment inhibited food intake within 2 hr. Consequently, these results suggest that chlordecone suppresses food intake which in tum produces the decline in body weight.