Organophosphate poisoning in marmosets

Due to faulty use of a chlorpyriphos-diazinon combination as a pesticide within a laboratory animal house, 19 marmosets of 2 species (Saguinus fuscicollis and Callithrix jacchus) of 98 at risk died from organophosphorous poisoning (19%) mortality). The clinical signs were those of cholinesterase inhibitors. The morphological lesions consisted predominantly of haemorrhages in several organs, particularly the CNS, and of bone marrow necroses.     

Oxygen poisoning in Drosophila

Fruit flies live longer at the partial pressure of oxygen found in air than at either larger or smaller partial pressures. Flies exposed to 1 atm of oxygen for 8 hr every day do not recover completely in the remaining 16 hr. In general, intermittent exposures to 1 atm of oxygen are better tolerated than continuous exposure to the same average oxygen concentration per day, but exposures to higher pressures of 2–5 atm of oxygen for as little as a half hour every two days markedly shorten the life-span. Older flies consume more oxygen per minute and are more sensitive to oxygen poisoning than young flies, and the rate of dying in 6 atm of O₂, or the reciprocal of the survival time, is a linear function of the age. The oxygen pressure-time curve can be well expressed by the general empirical equation (P_OO2)² x time = 120 where P is in atmosphere and survival time in hours. The progress of oxygen poisoning appears to be linear with time rather than exponential.     

Mushroom poisoning

In the research we included a total of 207 subjects with the dismissal diagnosis of "mycetismus", who were treated at the Department of Infectious Diseases, General Hospital Osijek, during the 1983-1992 period. 32 of them were children. There were 44.93% of men, 39.61% of women and 15.45% of children. The latent time > 6 hours was determined in 51 (25%) and < 6 hours in 75% of subjects. In 156 of patients with the latent time > 6 hours, "false" poisoning occured, while 51 patients experienced real mushroom toxins poisoning. At the admission to the hospital, in patients with the latent time > 6 hours, a pathological PT (protrombine time) was established only in women, leukocytosis in both women and children, increased concentration of GGT (gamma-glutamin-transferase) in men, increased AST (aspartate-aminotransferase) and ALT (alanin-aminotransferase) only in women, and increased urea in both women and children. After 24 hours, control measuring established high values of AST and ALT extended PT uremia and exalted amount of ammonia in blood in 11 of patients (2 men, 7 women and 2 children). They had severe liver and kidney damage, the most probably caused by Amanita phalloides toxins. The latent time lasted 9 to 13 hours. Of the 11 above mentioned patients, 2 women, aged 74 and 43, and one girl, aged 6, died. No pathological laboratory parameters were established in 40 of subjects with the latent time of 6 and more hours, and the disease manifested through vomiting and diarrhea that lasted for several days. These subjects most probably suffered from mushroom toxins poisoning. Mushroom toxins irritate the mucuous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract, and there are many such poisonous mushrooms. There were no mortalities in this group of subjects.