Effect of Some Organophosphorus Pesticides on Oxygen Consumption of Shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei

Oxygen consumption was measured in adult specimens of Litopenaeus vannamei shrimps from a coastal lagoon of Sinaloa, Mexico, during exposure to sublethal concentrations of the organophosphorus pesticides, Diazinon, Folidol, and Gusathion. Each individual was used as a control of itself, to avoid differences between treatments being masked by individual variability. In all three treatments with pesticides, respiration rate, measured by a polarographic electrode, was significantly lower than in controls. This may, at least partly, explain the decrease in shrimp production observed in recent years in the coastal lagoons of Sinaloa.