Salmon olfaction is impaired by an environmentally realistic pesticide mixture

Many of the salmon-producing waterways of the world contain pesticides known to harm olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) that are critically important throughout the salmon life cycle. The ability of OSNs to retain functionality after exposure to complex pesticide mixtures remains unknown. Here we show that a 96-h exposure to an environmentally realistic concentration of a mixture made from the ten most frequently occurring pesticides in British Columbia's Nicomekl River reduced the OSN responses of rainbow trout to a behaviorally relevant odorant. Odor-evoked responses were not altered by exposure to one fifth of the realistic concentration, and this may have been due an upregulation in detoxification enzymes, since glutathione-S-transferase activity reached a maximum (>32% above control) at this concentration. Mixture exposure did not help to prevent OSN impairment from a second, brief (5 min) exposure to a higher(20x) concentration of the mixture, suggesting longer-term, low-concentration exposures may not prevent damage from brief, high-concentration pulse exposures. This study demonstrates that environmentally observed pesticide mixtures can injure salmon olfactory tissue, and by extension, contribute to the threatened and endangered status of many salmon stocks.