Endrin versus 12-ketoendrin in birds and rodents

Abstract

British workers showed that in rats the endrin metabolite, 12-ketoendrin, was five times as toxic as endrin, was probably the ultimate cause of death, and was the main form of endrin in the brain at death. In cows and rabbits, however, they detected little of this metabolite. They found none in hens. We found no 12-ketoendrin in birds of four orders that had been heavily exposed to or killed by endrin. We suggest that residue work with birds need not consider this compound unless birds have been eating endrin-killed rodents. White mice had much less 12-ketoendrin than rats, but had more endrin. In tests with spiked samples, 12-ketoendrin was successfully recovered from extracts by gel permeation chromatography, but not by florisil.