ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2014
Behavioural and physiological responses of birds to environmentally relevant concentrations of an antidepressant.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Pharmaceuticals and Microplastics in Aquatic Environments: A Comprehensive Review of Pathways and Distribution, Toxicological and Ecological Effects.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Review
- Antidepressants surveillance in wastewater: Overview extraction and detection.Case studies in chemical and environmental engineering · 2021Article
- Psychoactive pollution suppresses individual differences in fish behaviour.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Direct and indirect effects of chemical contaminants on the behaviour, ecology and evolution of wildlife.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Review
- Pharmaceutical Residues Affecting the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Kristianstads Vattenrike Wetlands: Sources and Sinks.Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology · 2016Article
- Quantification of cerivastatin toxicity supports organismal performance assays as an effective tool during pharmaceutical safety assessment.Evolutionary applications · 2016Article
- Article
- Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Bats from the Northeastern United States.Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology · 2015Article
- Medicating the environment: assessing risks of pharmaceuticals to wildlife and ecosystems.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2014Article
- Potential ecological footprints of active pharmaceutical ingredients: an examination of risk factors in low-, middle- and high-income countries.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many wildlife species forage on sewage-contaminated food, for example, at wastewater treatment plants and on fields fertilized with sewage sludge. The resultant exposure to human pharmaceuticals remains poorly studied for terrestrial species. On the basis of predicted exposure levels in the wild, we administered the common antidepressant fluoxetine (FLUOX) or control treatment via prey to wild-caught starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) for 22 weeks over winter. To investigate responses to fluoxetine, birds were moved from their group aviaries into individual cages for 2 days. Boldness, exploration and activity levels showed no treatment effects but controls and FLUOX birds habituated differently to isolation in terms of the concentration of corticosterone (CORT) metabolites in faeces. The controls that excreted higher concentrations of CORT metabolites on day 1 lost more body mass by day 2 of isolation than those which excreted lower levels of CORT metabolites. CORT metabolites and mass loss were unrelated in FLUOX birds. When we investigated the movements of birds in their group aviaries, we found the controls made a higher frequency of visits to food trays than FLUOX birds around the important foraging periods of sunrise and sunset, as is optimal for wintering birds. Although individual variability makes interpreting the sub-lethal endpoints measured challenging, our data suggest that fluoxetine at environmentally relevant concentrations can significantly alter behaviour and physiology.
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