Daphnia magna as a Model to Assess Heavy Metal Toxicity: Comparative Assessment with Mouse System

The acute static bioassays with heavy metals at 13 ± 1.5 °C in hard water (total hardness = 240 ppm as CaCO₃) were conducted in the laboratory with Daphnia magna. The 48 hr LC values and their 95 per dent confidence limits in ppm of metal were: 0.0038 (0.0027… 0.0053) for Hg; 0.015 (0.009… 0.026) for Ag; 0.1 (0.063… 0.16) for Cu; 0.69 (0.48… 1.0) for Zn; 1.52 (1.01… 2.28) for Co; 1.8 (1.16… 2.70) for Cr; 1.5 (1.07… 2.1) for Cd; 2,63 (1.7… 4.08) for Pb; 7.3 (5.49… 9.71) for Ni and 19.5 (13.45… 28.3) for Sn. At the close of 24 h of exposure Zn and Cd solutions showed milky white precipitation. The order of toxicity of heavy metals in this model was: Hg>Ag>Cu>Zn>Cd>Co>Cr>Pb>Ni>Sn. Comparison of D. magna and mouse LC₅₀ data showed that Daphnia were sensitive at 1/2710, 1/83, 1/123 and 1/5.5, the LC₅₀ values of Hg, Cu and Zn, respectively. Toxicity test with D. magna is simple, requiring less space, time, facilities, acclimatization time and equipment. Furthermore, Daphnia is more functional, reliable and gives reproducible results. Based on this data we believe the Daphnia magna model can be used as a model to study heavy metal toxicity.