Agriculture Linked To Frog Sexual Abnormalities

A farm irrigation canal would seem a healthier place for toads than a ditch by a supermarket parking lot.

But University of Florida scientists have found the opposite is true. In a study with wide implications for a longstanding debate over whether agricultural chemicals pose a threat to amphibians, UF zoologists have found that toads in suburban areas are less likely to suffer from reproductive system abnormalities than toads near farms — where some had both testes and ovaries.

“As you increase agriculture,” said Lou Guillette, a distinguished professor of zoology, “you have an increasing number of abnormalities.”

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Tagged as: Amphibians, Animals, Farm & Ranch, Farming, Frogs, Reproduction, Toads, University of Florida, Zoology