Endocrine disruptors and other food-contaminating environmental pollutants as risk factors in animal reproduction

Pollutants of many chemical classes, derived primarily from anthropogenic activities, are ubiquitous in the environment, persistent, biologically available and can exert adverse effects on the reproductive and other, indirectly related, physiological systems. Food is generally considered to be the major route of animal exposure in vertebrate species but the relative contributions of other routes of exposure such as through lungs, gills or skin are not well studied and may be of importance for certain animal groups, depending on their immediate environment. Animals are particularly sensitive to exposure during developmental stages but the pattern of exposure to chemicals is likely to be different to that of adults. Quantification of the risk posed by the ingestion of pollutants in food is complex and depends on many factors including species, diet composition, duration of exposure to the food, efficiency of pollutant absorption, subsequent metabolism, sensitivity of target organs and stage of development. While the effects of high doses of single chemicals are proven, dietary exposure to pollutants generally involves prolonged, low-level exposure to a large number of compounds, each of which has different chemical characteristics, exerts different biological effects and is present at varying concentrations. Thus, while exposure to pollutants through feed is undoubtedly a significant risk factor for many species and may be the most important one for many terrestrial vertebrates, other routes of exposure may be more important in other groups.