Genotoxic Effect of Chlorpyrifos and Cypermethrin in Albino Rats

This study was designed to evaluate genotoxic effect of chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin, singly and in combination, in albino rats.Thirty-six albino rats were randomly divided into three groups (A, B and C) of four rats per treatment (chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos+ cypermethrin).Group A was the control and received distilled water and feed only.Groups B and C received 5 and 10 mg kgG 1 b.wt. of each treatment, respectively.Treatment was administered via oral gavage and lasted for a period of 65 days.The 24 h after administering the last dosage, rats were sacrificed and bone marrow samples were collected for evaluation.The result revealed that pesticide treatment reduced polychromatic erythrocytes and the ratio of polychromatic erythrocytes to normochromatic erythrocytes significantly, while normochromatic erythrocytes and micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes increased significantly (p<0.05)compared with the control.However, the treatment had no significant (p>0.05)effect on micro-nucleated normochromatic erythrocytes.These findings therefore indicate that chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin, singly and especially in combination, could be mutagenic.