Comparative Assessment of Short- and Long-Term Effects of Triadimenol Fungicide on Danio rerio Erythrocytes Using the Micronucleus and Erythrocyte Nuclear Abnormality Assays

Triadimenol is a systemic fungicide widely used in agriculture to manage plant diseases, especially fungal infections. This study aims to evaluate the short-term (24, 48, 72 and 96 h) and long-term (10, 20, and 30 days) genotoxic effects of different concentrations of triadimenol on zebrafish (<i>Danio rerio</i>) erythrocytes using micronucleus (MN) and erythrocyte nuclear abnormal (ENA) assay. Fish were treated with 1.5, 3, and 6 mg/L concentrations of triadimenol for short and long-term periods. After the treatment period, blood was collected with heparin syringe, smears were prepared, the preparations were fixed and stained. For MN assay in short-term treatments, statistically significant MN formation was found at all concentrations of triadimenol for 24 h treatment, at the highest triadimenol concentration for 48 h, at 1.5 and 3 mg/L concentrations for 72 h, and at 3 mg/L concentrations for 96 h, compared to the negative control. In long-term treatments, significant increases in MN formation were observed at all concentrations of triadimenol for 10 and 20 days of treatment compared to the negative control. Mortality occurred at 3 and 6 mg/L concentrations in the 30-day treatment. The most frequently detected abnormalities included echinocytes and binuclear cells. For ENA assay, abnormalities such as echinocytes, binuclear cells, segmented cells, and kidney-shaped nuclei were detected in fish erythrocytes treated with different concentrations of triadimenol. All concentrations of triadimenol caused an increase in the total abnormality level in <i>Danio rerio</i> erythrocytes at all treatment times. These increases were concentration dependent for both short-term and long-term treatments. In conclusion, this study emphasized the potential genotoxic risks of triadimenol fungicide for aquatic organisms in both short-term and long-term treatments and the need for further ecotoxicological evaluation.