ORIGINAL RESEARCH Oral (Drinking Water) Two-Generation Reproductive Toxicity Study of Dibromoacetic Acid (DBA) in Rats

In a two-generation study of dibromoacetic acid (DBA), Crl SD rats (30 rats/sex/group/generation)were provided DBA in drinking water at 0 (reverse osmosis–deionized water), 50, 250, and 650 ppm (0, 4.4 to11.6, 22.4 to55.6, and 52.4 to132.0mg/kg/day, respectively; human intake approximates 0.1 g/kg/day [0.0001 mg/kg/day]). Observations included viability, clinical signs, water and feed con-sumption, body and organ weights, histopathology, and reproduc-tive parameters (mating, fertility, abortions, premature deliveries, durations of gestation, litter sizes, sex ratios and viabilities, ma-ternal behaviors, reproductive organ weights, sperm parameters and implantation sites, sexual maturation). Histopathological eval-uations were performed on at least 10 P and F1 rats/sex at 0 and 650 ppm (gross lesions, testes, intact epididymis; 10 F1 dams at 0, 250, and 650 ppm for primordial follicles). Developmental observa-tions included implantations, pup numbers, sexes, viabilities, body weights, morphology, and reproductive performance. At 50 ppm and higher, both sexes and generations had increased absolute and relative liver and kidneys weights, and female rats in both gener-ations had reduced absolute and relative adrenal weights; adrenal changes were probably associated with physiological changes i