preview

Research on the Effects of Japanese Quails Exposure to Synthetics Hormones

Decent Essays

Previous literature has found that various environmental contaminants, such as endocrine disrupters have detrimental effects on organisms such as the Japanese quails. A vast amount of studies have been conducted to analyze characteristics such as reproductive behavior in mammals however the current study adds on knowledge to an understudied population, the avian species specifically the Japanese quail. Exposure to these estrogen receptor antagonists has seemed to take a toll on the reproductive behavior of such species that the researchers of the current study main purpose were to formulate an endocrinological standardized test. This standardized test would help identify insidious effects of the estrogen receptor in the Japanese male …show more content…

Finally, all birds were sacrificed in order to calculate their body masses and testes weights.
The results of the study indicated that the hypothesis that exposure to synthetic hormones such the ethinylestradiol and diethylstilbestrol would alter the copulatory behavior of the male Japanese quails was supported. Copulatory behavior did decrease for the male quail birds that were treated with diethylstilbestrol. When the killing of all male Japanese quail birds was carried out, researchers noticed that there were significant testicular changes. They noticed that all male birds that were treated with the synthetic hormone of ethinylestradiol had testicular asymmetry. Unlike the testes of the male quail birds, there was no change in the body mass of the male quail birds. The study can be described as a correlational study because there is a negative relationship with the amount of dosage and sexual behavior. As dosage for both synthetic drugs increases there is a reduction in what is considered male typical sexual behavior.
A strength of the study was the operationalized definition of sexual behavior in Japanese male quails. One of the main objectives of the study was to detect deviancy in sexual behavior within the male quails. Researchers operationalized sexual behavior as four main behaviors which included neck grab, mount attempt, mounting

Get Access