HEMATOLOGICAL AND GENOTOXIC EFFECTS OF MERCURY (II) CHLORIDE ON ONCORHYNCHUS MYKISS

Abstract

The target this study was the determination of the hematological and genotoxic effect of HgCl2 on O. mykiss. The bio-experiment was made in 3 replicates and 10 fish were placed in the control and experiment group aquariums. The 96 hour LC50 was given in acute toxicity experiment as 0.814 mg/L in the literature and the sublethal concentration was taken 0.0814 mg/L as 1/10 of this value. The micronucleus test performed on the blood samples taken from the fish at the end of the hematocrit. The blood sample from each fish was centrifuged at 11500 rpm for 4 minutes to determine the percentage of hematocrit. The micronucleus test was performed counting 1000 cells on the preparations of blood under light microscope. The mean values of MN test in the control group were found to be as follow: micronucleus 8.20, notched 10.80, bud 7.60, lobed 16.60 and binucleus 13.80. The corresponding values of the experimental group were micronucleus 23, notched 25, bud 24.25, lobed 27 and binucleus 29.50. The MN test results were found to increase in experimental group compared with the control group. The hematocrit level known as the health indicator of fish was found to be 35.59% for the control group decreased to 32.69% for the experimental group. These results reveal that HgCl2 causes hematological and genotoxic effects on fish.