Effects of Dietary Administration of CL20 on Japa

Authors: G Bardai G I Sunahara P A Spear M Martel P Gong J Hawari

Publish Date: 2005/07/06

Volume: 49, Issue: 2, Pages: 215-222

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Abstract

Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane or CL20 is an emerging highly energetic compound currently under consideration for military applications With the anticipated wide use of CL20 there is the potential for soil and groundwater contamination resulting in adverse toxicologic effects on environmental receptors Presently there is a lack of data describing the toxic effects of CL20 on avian species The present study describes the effect of CL20 on Japanese quail Coturnix coturnix japonica modified from standard toxicity test guidelines First a 14day subacute assay was adopted using repeated gavage doses 0 307 964 2439 3475 or 5304 mg CL20/kg body weight BW/d for 5 days followed by no CL20 exposure vehicle only for 10 days Second a subchronic feeding assay 0 11 114 or 1085 mg CL20/kg feed was done for 42 days During both studies no overt toxicity was observed in the CL20–treated birds During the first 5 days of the subacute study CL20–exposed birds showed a dosedependent decrease in BW gain whereas increased liver weight plasma sodium and creatinine levels were observed in birds receiving the highest dose tested For the subchronic study embryo weights were significantly decreased in a dosedependent manner Embryos from CL20–exposed birds were observed to have multiple cranial and facial deformities beak curvatures possible midbrain enlargement and classic onesided development with microopthalamia nonstatistical comparisons with control embryos A trend toward decreased number of eggs laid per female bird was also observed We conclude that CL20 or its degradation products elicits few effects in adults but may affect avian development although these preliminary findings should be confirmedWe thank Fanny MonteilRivera and Mark S Johnson for their review of an earlier version of the manuscript In addition we thank Manon Sarrazin Sabine Dodard and Louise Paquet from Biotechnology Research Institute National Research Council of Canada for their technical assistance the United States Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program SERDP Project No CP1256 for financial support and Thiokol Propulsion Inc for providing the εCL20 This article was assigned NRC publication 47222

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