Succession and bioaccumulation studies of blowflies decomposing pesticides-intoxicated rabbit carcass
Forensic entomotoxicology is a study on the usefulness of insects as alternative toxicological samples when conventional matrices such as blood, urine or internal organs are no longer available. The use of blowfly maggots as pesticide indicator as well as in diagnosing the cause of death was inve...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS)
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9123/2/Vannessa%28fulltext%29.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9123/ |
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| Summary: | Forensic entomotoxicology is a study on the usefulness of insects as alternative toxicological
samples when conventional matrices such as blood, urine or internal organs are no longer
available. The use of blowfly maggots as pesticide indicator as well as in diagnosing the
cause of death was investigated. A field experiment was conducted in which rabbits were
poisoned and killed using four pesticides namely dimethoate, malathion, permethrin and
paraquat dichloride. Pesticides were introduced to the rabbits via oral ingestion to imitate the
real suicidal or accidental pesticides poisonings. Decomposition rate of rabbits and insect
succession were investigated in this study. Dimethoate and permethrin ingested carcass
showed a slow rate of decomposition. Both took 10 days and 34 days, respectively, to
completely decompose if compared to the control carcass which took only 8 days. Both
malathion and paraquat dichloride ingested carcass showed similar rate of decomposition to
control carcass with 7 to 8 days to completely decompose. Small numbers of insects were
found in/on dimethoate and permethrin ingested carcass. Meanwhile, Chrysomya
megacephala and Chrysomya rufifacies were found dominant in infesting malathion and
paraquat dichloride ingested carcass. Both species belonged to the family of blowfly. Lucilia
species were also found infesting paraquat dichloride ingested carcass. Therefore, the
detection of pesticides were only carried out for malathion and paraquat. Detection of
pesticides in maggots samples were investigated by using GC-MS. Malathion was detected
at retention time 8.8 min, while, paraquat dichloride was detected at retention time 12.8 min,
indicating that the maggots fed on pesticides-exposed flesh would be a valid samples to
identify the cause of death in pesticide-related death. |
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