Toxicity evaluation of treated refinery effluent using brine shrimp (Artemia salina) egg and larval bioassay

Abstract

A bioassay test using Artemia Salina egg and larvae is conducted to evaluate the aquatic toxicity treated refinery effluents. The brine shrimp (Artemia salina) has gained popularity as test organism for short-term toxicity testing because of its ease of culture, short generation time, cosmopolitan distribution and its commercial availability as donnant eggs. One year study has been carried out to assess toxicity of effluent samples collected from an oil refinery at Mangalore, (India) on the egg hatching and larval survival rate of A. salina. The chemical quality of the refinery effluent collected during Oct 2002 - Sep 2003 was found to be within the prescribed permissible limits. The mean EC50 for egg hatching rate using the effluent collected during the dry and wet seasons was 40.6% and 73.4% effluent (% by volume) respectively