The effects of the chlorinated
pesticide chlordecone on food intake,
body weight, and water intake were examined in adult male rats.
Chlordecone treatment produced a dose dependent suppression of food intake. Loss of
body weight accompanied the reduced food intake. However,
chlordecone did not suppress water intake.
Chlordecone treated animals maintained on a liquid diet also demonstrated reduced food intake, suggesting that
chlordecone has a specific effect on feeding behavior and not a general effect on ingestive behaviors. The potential contribution of
chlordecone-induced
tremor to the suppressed food intake and the loss of
body weight was considered. When treatment occurred immediately before a 24 hr fast, controls and animals given 75 mg/kg showed no differences in the
body weight decline, even though
tremor occurred in the
pesticide-treated rats. Thus, it is unlikely that
tremor alone produced the
body weight loss observed in the present experiment. Similarly, animals were capable of initiating eating behavior even though
tremor was present. In addition,
chlordecone treatment inhibited food intake within 2 hr. Consequently, these results suggest that
chlordecone suppresses food intake which in turn produces the decline in
body weight.