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"Environmental Influences on the Reproductive Health of Fishes" • Ed Orlando, Ph.D. Florida Atlantic University About the Lecture - 2006 A combination of economic pressure, to control the costs of meat production in developed nations, and a rapidly growing demand for meat in developing nations is changing the traditional agricultural practices of raising livestock. In the past, livestock were fed mainly by grazing in the fields and supplemented with farm-raised grain. Animal waste, in turn, was used to fertilize the fields and provide needed nutrients and humus to the crops. Today, there is a growing trend to centralize and concentrate the husbandry of livestock in animal feeding operations, where livestock are housed in enclosed buildings or fenced enclosures and food is brought to them. In the United States, animal feeding operations of a certain size, with known connections to surface waters, or potential to discharge waste, are called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). There is growing concern about the potential environmental and human health effects of CAFOs, including ammonia, dust, and odor as air pollutants and ammonia/ammonium, nutrients, pathogens, antibiotics, and natural and synthetic hormones as water pollutants emanating from animal waste. While there has been much research on the profound impacts of nutrients on ecosystem heath, only a few studies have examined the environmental fate or potential ecological effects of these hormones. This talk will provide background information on the endocrine system and endocrine disrupting chemicals, and illustrate the known and potential environmental influences of natural and synthetic hormones on the reproductive health of exposed fishes. About the Speaker Ed Orlando earned a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2001, whereupon he joined the faculty of the Biology Department at St. Mary's College of Maryland. In 2005, he accepted a position in Florida Atlantic University's Department of Biological Sciences, based at HBOI, as part of the FAU-HBOI Marine Science Partnership. His lab investigates: (1) the physiological effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals on the reproductive health, and (2) the genomic and environmental mechanisms regulating sex determination and differentiation of fishes. This research has been supported by grants or fellowships from the EU, NSF, USEPA, FAU, and SMCM and has resulted in over 30 publications. Ed is currently a member of the USEPA Endocrine Disruptor Methods Validation Advisory Committee and has served as a panel member of the Exposure Measurement Tools for Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Mixtures grant. |